Summary
Objectives:
This paper presents a multi-access service for the management of diabetes mellitus
patients and the results of its assessment in two Italian clinical sites.
Methods:
The service was evaluated for one year in order to prove the advantages of these
kind of systems from different points of view. In this paper the clinical, usability
and technical outcomes are presented.
Results:
The evaluation results show that, thanks to the high flexibility of the implemented
service, the tele-medicine management of diabetes patients is feasible, well accepted
by patients and clinically effective. However, in Italy the problem of quantifying
the reimbursement rate of telematic services and the impact they have on the organization
are factors that may hamper their introduction in routine clinical practice.
Conclusions:
The evaluation study showed that the telemedicine intervention has been satisfactory
both for physicians because it allows to constantly monitor the patients’ blood glucose
level and for patients because it strengthens their motivation to self-monitor the
metabolic situation.
Keywords
Telemedicine - diabetes mellitus - blood glucose self-monitoring
