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 the Space between Visits: A Randomized Trial of Disease Management for Diabetes in a Community Health Center
Background Diabetes outcomes are worse for underserved patients from certain ethnic/racial minority population s.  Telephonic disease management is a cost-effective strategy to deliver self-management services and possibly improve diabetes outcomes for such patients . Objective We conducted a trial to test the effectiveness of a supplemental telephonic disease management program compared to usual care alone for patients with diabetes cared for in a community health center . Design R and omized controlled trial . Participants All patients had type 2 diabetes , and the majority was Hispanic or African American . Most were urban-dwelling with low socioeconomic status , and nearly all had Medicaid or were uninsured . Measurements Clinical measures included glycemic control , blood pressure , lipid levels , and body mass index . Vali date d surveys were used to measure dietary habits and physical activity . Results A total of 146 patients were r and omized to the intervention and 149 to the control group .  Depressive symptoms were highly prevalent in both groups . Using an intention to treat analysis , there were no significant differences in the primary outcome ( HbA1c ) between the intervention and control groups at 12 months . There were also no significant differences for secondary clinical or behavioral outcome measures including BMI , systolic or diastolic blood pressure , LDL cholesterol , smoking , or intake of fruits and vegetables , or physical activity . Conclusions A clinic-based telephonic disease management support for underserved patients with diabetes did not improve clinical or behavioral outcomes at 1 year as compared to patients receiving usual care alone
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 .