Reduced hospital visit time for patients using smartphone combined with teleconsultations
THURSDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- The Diabeo smartphone system improves HbA1c levels in patients with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes, according to a study published in the March issue of Diabetes Care.
Guillaume Charpentier, M.D., from the Sud-Francilien Hospital in Corbeil-Essonnes, France, and colleagues assessed HbA1c levels in patients with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes who used the Diabeo software combined with telemedicine support. A total of 180 adults with type 1 diabetes for greater than one year who were on a basal-bolus insulin regimen for more than six months and had HbA1c levels of 8 percent or more were randomly assigned to usual follow-up visits every three months; use of a smartphone that recommends insulin doses plus visits every three months; or use of a smartphone with teleconsultations every two weeks and no set visits until the end of the study.
The investigators found that at, six months, patients assigned to a smartphone with teleconsultations had a lower mean HbA1c compared to those with standard care. The HbA1c level in the group using a smartphone without teleconsultation was intermediate. No difference was seen in terms of hypoglycemic episode frequency or total medical time spent on consultations (in a hospital or by telephone). Patients using the smartphone with teleconsultations spent nearly five hours less attending hospital visits compared with patients in the other groups.
"Our large multicenter trial is the first study to show such a significant improvement in HbA1c using a telemedicine system in poorly controlled type 1 diabetes," the authors write.
Voluntis and Orange provided equipment for this study. Several of the study authors disclosed financial ties with pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including sanofi-aventis, which partially funded the study.
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