Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec:194:110158.
doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2022.110158. Epub 2022 Nov 15.

Role of telemedicine during COVID-19 pandemic in type 2 diabetes outpatients: The AMD annals initiative

Giuseppina T Russo  1 , Francesco Andreozzi  2 , Mariella Calabrese  3 , Paolo Di Bartolo  4 , Graziano Di Cianni  5 , Carlo Bruno Giorda  6 , Emanuela Lapice  7 , Elisa Manicardi  8 , Annalisa Giandalia  1 , Giuseppe Lucisano  9 , Antonio Nicolucci  9 , Alberto Rocca  10 , Maria Chiara Rossi  9 , Emanuele Spreafico  11 , Giacomo Vespasiani  12 , Valeria Manicardi  13 ; AMD Annals study group
Affiliations

Role of telemedicine during COVID-19 pandemic in type 2 diabetes outpatients: The AMD annals initiative

Giuseppina T Russo et al. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Aims: Telemedicine is advocated as a fundamental tool in modern clinical management. However, data on the effects of telemedicine vs face-to-face consultation on clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are still uncertain. This paper describes the use of telemedicine during the 2020 COVID-19 emergency and compares volume activity and quality indicators of diabetes care between face-to-face vs telemedicine counseling in the large cohort of T2DM patients from the AMD Annals Initiative.

Methods: Demographic and clinical characteristics, including laboratory parameters, rate of the screening of long-term complications, current therapies and the Q-score, a validated score that measures the overall quality of care, were compared between 364,898 patients attending face-to-face consultation and 46,424 on telemedicine, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: Patients on telemedicine showed lower HbA1c levels (7.1 ± 1.2 % vs 7.3 ± 1.3 %, p < 0.0001), and they were less frequently treated with metformin, GLP1-RAs and SGLT2i and more frequently with DPP4i. The telemedicine group showed reduced monitoring of the various parameters considered as process indicators, especially, eye and foot examination. The proportion of patients with a good quality of care (Q score > 25) was higher among those receiving face-to-face consultation. Moreover, in the telemedicine group, all major clinical outcomes remained stable when further compared to those collected in the year 2019, when the same patients underwent a regular face-to-face consultation, suggesting that the care provided through telemedicine did not negatively affect the most important parameters.

Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine provided an acceptable quality of diabetes care, comparable to that of patients attending face-to-face consultation, although a less frequent screening of complications seems to have occurred in subjects consulted by telemedicine.

Keywords: AMD Annals; COVID-19; T2DM; Telemedicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

    1. Merrill C.B., Roe J.M., Seely K.D., Brooks B. Advanced telemedicine training and clinical outcomes in type II diabetes: a pilot study. Telemed Rep. 2022;3(1):15–23. doi: 10.1089/tmr.2021.0039. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Emami A., Javanmardi F., Pirbonyeh N., Akbari A. Prevalence of underlying diseases in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Acad. Emerg. Med. 2020;8(1):e35. PMC7096724. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Corrao G., Rea F., Carle F., Scondotto S., Allotta A., Lepore V., et al. Monitoring and Assessing care Pathways (MAP) working group of the Italian Ministry of Health. Stratification of the risk of developing severe or lethal Covid-19 using a new score from a large Italian population: a population-based cohort study. BMJ Open. 2021;11(11):e053281. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053281. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tchero H., Kangambega P., Briatte C., Brunet Houdard S., Retali G.R., Rusch E. Clinical effectiveness of telemedicine in diabetes mellitus: a meta analysis of 42 randomized controlled trials. Telemed. E Health. 2019;25:569–583. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2018.0128. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tilden D.R., Datye K.A., Moore D.J., French B., Jaser S.S. The rapid transition to telemedicine and its effect on access to care for patients with type 1 diabetes during the COVID 19 pandemic. Diabetes Care. 2021;44:1447–1450. doi: 10.2337/dc20-2712. - DOI - PMC - PubMed