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 .
Effectiveness of mobile and internet intervention in patients with obese type 2 diabetes
PURPOSE The present study evaluated whether an intervention using the SMS by personal cellular phone and internet would improve the levels of plasma glucose of obese type 2 diabetes at 3 , 6 , 9 , and 12 months . METHODS This is a quasi-experimental design with pre- and follow-up tests . Participants were recruited from the endocrinology outpatient department of tertiary care hospital located in an urban city of South Korea . Eighteen patients were r and omly assigned to an intervention group and 16 to a control group . The goal of the intervention was to decrease body weight and keep blood glucose concentrations close to the normal range . Patients were requested to record their blood glucose level  in a weekly diary on the website by personal cellular phones or computer internet . The research er sent optimal recommendations to each patient , by both the cellular phone and the Internet weekly . The intervention was applied for 1 year . RESULTS Glycosylated hemoglobin ( HbA(1)c ) decreased 1.22 percentage points at 3 months , 1.09 percentage points at 6 months , 1.47 percentage points at 9 months , and 1.49 percentage points at 12 months compared with baseline in the intervention group ( all time points , p<0.05 ) . The percentage change in the control group was , however , not significant . Patients in the intervention group had a decrease of 2-h post-pr and ial test ( 2HPPT ) of 120.1mg/dl at 3 months , 58.9 mg/dl at 6 months , 62.0mg/dl at 9 months , and 102.9 mg/dl at 12 months compared with baseline ( all time points , p<0.05 ) . The mean change in the control group was , however , not significant . CONCLUSION This web-based intervention using SMS of personal cellular phone and Internet improved HbA(1)c and 2HPPT at 3 , 6 , 9 , and 12 months in patients with obese type 2 diabetes
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 .