How Telemedicine is Empowering Diabetic Patients

Telemedicine’s digital features are excellent for optimizing diabetic patients’ outcomes

Research studies indicate that diabetics can derive great benefits from telemedicine (TM) care. And as Dr David Klonoff, MD at the Diabetes Research Institute Mills-Peninsula Health Services, writes in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology: “[monitoring] has improved outcomes… and TM allows monitored data to be stored and analyzed. Many types of inputs affecting diabetes can be digitized… blood glucose levels, time spent exercising, steps walked, calories ingested, medication doses administered, blood pressure, and weight.” WELL doctors and consultants, along with IT specialists, work to derive the maximum benefit from these forms of monitoring.

Algorithms

Thanks to high tech, cutting-edge software can identify patterns which can result in precise recommendations for diabetic treatment. Moreover, due the data from algorithms, decisions regarding the management of diabetes can be made or supported in real time.

Diabetes Management

Diabetes management via the use of telemedicine, has proved to be very successful. There are a number of steps which involve the measurement of blood glucose and other physiologic data that is: “transmitted, aggregated, analyzed, stored, and then either presented as actionable information to a patient or else delivered to a treatment algorithm, where a specific action is advised.”

The results of delivering this actionable data is twofold for WELL’s diabetic patients: it can “provide a specific algorithm-determined recommendation that specifies a particular treatment” [or] “provide information that a patient can use to assist them in making a decision.” To that end, the results of the decision leads to action that has been backed by the patient’s data, which is aimed to ameliorate the outcome.

Klonoff notes that: “In general, telemedicine allows patients to forgo traveling to a physician’s office for in-person care (which can often be more time consuming and costly for an ACO to deliver than remote care).”

In summary, by being part of the WELL community, doctors can: “improve outcomes, expand access, and provide better economic value for patients.” Moreover, diabetic patients can derive all the benefits of telemedicine including convenience, lower charges, and access to a top doctor or specialist every day of the year. They also have peace of mind, as they can take advantage of remote monitoring, which will show up any untoward symptoms. This form of technology has empowered so many diabetics who used to be obliged to make regular visits to the doctor’s office.