Telemedicine reduces the economic impact by face -to -face visits in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus
Seville, April 13, 2013.
For the first time a multicentric study, representative of the whole country, demonstrates that telemedicine reduces the economic impact in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) with respect to face -to -face visits to the hospital, which is a significantly lower cost fromThe point of view of time mainly used by the patient, but also by the healthcare professional.
These are the first results of the Telemed-Diabetes Study, carried out by the Biomedical Research Center in the Network of Associated Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM) of the Carlos III Health Institute (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), which have occurred this SaturdayIn the XXIV National Congress of the Spanish Society of Diabetes, held in Seville.
This study, pioneer in Spain, is born to evaluate the effectiveness of telematic systems applied to the treatment of people with DM1 from a cost-effectiveness point of view.
According to Dr. Enric Esmatjes, Chief of the Diabetes Unit of the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona and coordinator of the Telemed-Diabetes Study, “attending to the costs involved in the time spent to visit the hospital, the consultation itself and the time spentFor the professional to serve the patient, it has been seen that there is a 50 percent reduction in the economic impact when we transfer the minutes saved to euros.This is difficult because the cost of time used is complex, but we can say that patients who did the telematic follow -up had half of the minutes to carry out the entire program in relation to those who traditionally visited the visits, a more than significant savingsfor the patient and the system ”.This result is accompanied by an identical reduction in terms of the main metabolic control parameter that is glycosylated hemoglobin, in both groups.
With regard to the knowledge acquired by the patient, therapeutic adhesion, and the quality of life, the improvement has also been noticeable.Therefore, "we conclude that telemedicine in this group offers a quality of life and a similar care to the traditional with a clear decrease in costs, especially for the patient," explains Esmatjes.
These results could be extrapolated to other chronic diseases or within the same disease to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2), although the intervention type approach “should be different, since there is no approach focused on the management of the management of the managementInsulin treatment, but must be focused on education and achieve changes in lifestyle.
Although, without a doubt, to be able to intervene at a distance through any of the multiple telematic systems in DM2 is equally effective ”
For Dr. Esmatjes, Ciberdem researcher, the challenge from nowAssistance system, which implies a change of mentality by professionals by making a certain treatment and administration when quantifying the resources assigned for it ”.
Study methodology
For the selection of patients from the Telemed-Diabetes study, it has been taken into account that these people have internet access at home, and that they had bad chronic control of DM1 in ages between the18 and 55 years.According to the study coordinator, “this selection attends to the claim to influence the therapeutic guideline where we can help the patient in the modification of insulin doses, as well as in the management of the diet and/or lifestyle.It is a population group with bad chronic control that consumes many resources in terms of hospital visits and, therefore, it is important to look for strategies to achieve the same results without having a collapse in face -to -face visits. ”
On cyberdem
The Biomedical Research Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Associated (CIBERDEM), initiative of the Carlos III Health Institute (Ministry of Science and Innovation), groups more than 450 researchers distributed in 31 first -level research groups located in Andalusia, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Valencian Community, Madrid and the Basque Country.
The main objective of CIBERDEM is to increase research on diabetes and associated diseases, identifying the genes that confer susceptibility to these diseases as well as the environmental factors that participate in their development, elucidating the molecular mechanisms of the alteration in the secretion and signage ofInsulin, determining the molecular and cellular mechanisms of formation and destruction of the pancreatic beta cell and studying substitution strategies of said cell mass.Also, cyberdem dedicates special interest to the investigation of complications derived from diabetes and associated metabolic diseases.
The dissemination of research in the fight against diabetes became a priority and cyberdem is committed to actively contributing