[Diabetes treatment 2.0: telemedicine]

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Germany is between 5.8% and 9.5%. Telemedical applications (TA) can provide meaningful approaches in diabetes care. So far, however, TA have seldom undergone a structured research evaluation. This deficiency is considered to be one of the reasons why TA have rarely been implemented in routine care as yet.

Objectives: What information about research evaluation can be identified in current TA that address diabetes therapy?

Materials and methods: In order to identify the accompanying evaluation approaches of telemedical diabetes projects, the "vesta" information portal of the German Society for Telematics Applications for the Health Card (Gesellschaft für Telematikanwendungen der Gesundheitskarte mbH), the websites of the Innovation Fund at the Federal Joint Committee, PubMed, and gray literature were searched. Prevention projects were not included.

Results: Twelve projects were identified. For four of the projects, data from the accompanying research could be found, which refers to parameters such as HbA_1c, quality of life and economic aspects. One of these four projects stated that it was based on an established model for the evaluation of TA. No information on accompanying evaluations was found for the other eight projects, but three of these are still in the data collection phase.

Conclusions: As the results suggest, most of the telemedically supported diabetes projects are not being evaluated in a structured way as yet. Established instruments for the accompanying evaluation of TA are now being used.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, type 1; Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Diabetes technology; Implementation science; Mobile applications.