Telemedicine had no convincing effect on quality of life , mortality or hypoglycemia .
INTERPRETATION : Compared with usual care , the addition of telemedicine , especially systems that allowed medication adjustments with or without text messaging or a Web portal , improved HbA1C but not other clinical ly relevant outcomes among patients with diabetes
BACKGROUND : Telemedicine , the use of telecommunications to deliver health services , expertise and information , is a promising but unproven tool for improving the quality of  diabetes care  .
We summarized the effectiveness of different methods of telemedicine for the management of diabetes compared with usual care .
Managing diabetes care using an integrated regional e-health approach
A total of 175 patients with Types 1 and 2 diabetes in primary care and university hospital outpatient departments were r and omized into a study group ( n = 101 ) or usual care ( n = 74 ) . The study group used an e-health application with a diabetes management system and a home care link . Usual care did not involve e-health , i.e. the patients made regular general practitioner visits about every three months . After 12 months HbA1c decreased significantly in both groups of patients . The differences were small , but HbA1c was significantly lower in the study group than the controls . Diastolic blood pressure , fasting plasma glucose , serum total cholesterol , serum LDL-cholesterol and serum triglycerides were significantly lower in the study than in the control group . This was achieved with fewer visits by study patients to doctors and nurses . Use of e-health in diabetes care for 12 months was able to provide equivalent diabetic control to usual care , and improved cardiovascular risk factors
Telemedicine had no convincing effect on quality of life , mortality or hypoglycemia .
INTERPRETATION : Compared with usual care , the addition of telemedicine , especially systems that allowed medication adjustments with or without text messaging or a Web portal , improved HbA1C but not other clinical ly relevant outcomes among patients with diabetes
BACKGROUND : Telemedicine , the use of telecommunications to deliver health services , expertise and information , is a promising but unproven tool for improving the quality of  diabetes care  .
We summarized the effectiveness of different methods of telemedicine for the management of diabetes compared with usual care .