The Efficiency of Telemedicine to Optimize Metabolic Control in Patients With Diabetes in Turkey — TELEDIAB  

Telemedicine Clinical Trial

Official title: The Efficiency of Telemedicine to Optimize Metabolic Control in Patients With Diabetes in Turkey: Preliminary Results From The Randomised Controlled Telediab Trial

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The direct and indirect costs of treating diabetes are high. 10-15% of the health budgets of many countries are spent on diabetes treatment. Most of these expenses are due to the treatment and follow-up costs of complications seen in patients who are not well monitored and whose metabolic control is not achieved. the rapid increase in diabetes causes polyclinic and hospital services to become more intense. Despite the increasing number of patients, both performance and due to non-physician occupational groups' insufficiency (Diabetes Dietician, Diabetes Nurse), patients can only be given an appointment once a year, and patients cannot be allocated sufficient time during the appointment. Since these problems are valid worldwide, Telemedicine programs are designed to provide easy, cheap, and practical follow-up and treatment of many chronic diseases in various states of the USA and many developed European countries.

Clinical Trial Description

The project is designed as a randomized controlled trial with approximately 100 subjects receiving a telemedicine intervention and approximately 100 receiving usual care. Eligibility requires having diabetes and being a Medicare beneficiary.

This program, called "TeleDiab" for the first time in our country, was designed in cooperation with the Istanbul University Rectorate and the local telecommunication company Turkcell. Its implementation was carried out as a pilot project in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases of Istanbul Medical Faculty in the follow-up and treatment of diabetic patients. Subjects are randomized to receive telemedicine case management or usual care for diabetes.

This project, it is aimed to evaluate the "TeleDiab" program developed for use in diabetic patients in terms of applicability, practicality, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. In this way, it was aimed to compare the electronically followed patient group with a similar patient group routinely followed in terms of glycemic control, treatment compliance, complications, and comorbid diseases 6 months and 1 year later.

The intervention utilizes a home telemedicine unit (HTU). The HTU is a specially designed, web-enabled device with a data port connected to a home glucometer and home blood pressure cuff whereby measurements obtained with these devices can be directly uploaded to a computer database. A diabetes nurse and a practitioner case manager interact regularly with intervention participants through videoconference via the HTU. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Telehealth
• Telemedicine

• NCT number: NCT04789798
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Istanbul University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 21, 2013
• Completion date: October 19, 2015