Managing diabetes care using an integrated regional e-health approach

• HIT Description: electronic health application with a diabetes management system (DMS) and a home care link More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: evaluate whether an electronic diabetes management system with a homecare link can improve diabetes control
  
• Years of study: 2001-2002
  
• Study Design: RCT
  
• Outcomes: impact on health care effectiveness and quality
  

• Settings: diabetes patients from 2 primary care centers and 2 university hospitals outpatient clinics in Finland
• Intervention: intervention patients used an e-health application with a DMS and home care link which downloaded glucose measurements directly from the glucometer to a regional database. They also received messages and advice from the care team via text messages. The control group received standard care visits to a general practitioner
• Evaluation Method: not described
• Description: Allowed downloading of glucometer readings into a regional database which stored results and generated reports using a modern. Allowed for text messaging to patients. Data transfer protection was handled by secure socket layer encrytion.
• Strategy: one education visit to set up the home care link which was free of charge
• Quality of Care and Patient Safety Outcome: After 12 months, hemoglobin A1c levels decreased in both groups but were significantly lower in the intervention group v control (7.3 v 7.8%). Diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides were also significantly lower in the intervention group
• Changes in efficiency and productivity: Intervention patients had fewer visits than controls