Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Better Care for Patients With Diabetes: e-Medicine Is the Goal

Better Care for Patients With Diabetes: e-Medicine Is the Goal I read with interest the recent article by Morrison et al,1 who concluded that patients with diabetes mellitus who visited a primary care provider every 2 weeks more quickly achieved hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol targets. It is, however, unclear whether these important results were attributable to the visit itself or, more probably, to the closer monitoring of these parameters. Other than with direct access to physician's visit, medication intensification in patients with diabetes can be achieved by innovative and more comfortable technological pathways of patient-physician communication. A variety of biochemical and clinical features can now be reliably assessed by using real-time networks deploying a variety of sensors.2 The so-called e-alerts and e-advisories can then be generated when needed (eg, e-pill medication reminders) to optimize the expected value to the patient. This approach has already been proven simple and cost-effective for the self-management of patients with a variety of chronic diseases3 and therefore might be reliably experimented in patients with diabetes for providing medication as well as blood pressure and laboratory test reminders. Back to top Article Information Correspondence: Dr Lippi, Dipartimento di Patologia e Medicina di Laboratorio, U.O. Diagnostica Ematochimica, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43126 Parma, Italy (giuseppe.lippi@univr.it). Financial Disclosure: None reported. References 1. Morrison F, Shubina M, Turchin A. Encounter frequency and serum glucose level, blood pressure, and cholesterol level control in patients with diabetes mellitus. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(17):1542-155021949161PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref 2. Pavel M, Jimison H, Hayes T, et al. Optimizing medication reminders using a decision-theoretic framework. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2010;160(pt 2):791-79520841794PubMedGoogle Scholar 3. Celler BG, Lovell NH, Basilakis J. Using information technology to improve the management of chronic disease. Med J Aust. 2003;179(5):242-24612924970PubMedGoogle Scholar http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archives of Internal Medicine American Medical Association

Better Care for Patients With Diabetes: e-Medicine Is the Goal

Lippi, Giuseppe
Archives of Internal Medicine , Volume 172 (4) – Feb 27, 2012
Download PDF
1 page

Better Care for Patients With Diabetes: e-Medicine Is the Goal

Abstract

I read with interest the recent article by Morrison et al,1 who concluded that patients with diabetes mellitus who visited a primary care provider every 2 weeks more quickly achieved hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol targets. It is, however, unclear whether these important results were attributable to the visit itself or, more probably, to the closer monitoring of these parameters. Other than with direct access to physician's visit, medication...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/american-medical-association/better-care-for-patients-with-diabetes-e-medicine-is-the-goal-gAvbyjoAym

References (8)

Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN
0003-9926
eISSN
1538-3679
DOI
10.1001/archinternmed.2011.783
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

I read with interest the recent article by Morrison et al,1 who concluded that patients with diabetes mellitus who visited a primary care provider every 2 weeks more quickly achieved hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol targets. It is, however, unclear whether these important results were attributable to the visit itself or, more probably, to the closer monitoring of these parameters. Other than with direct access to physician's visit, medication intensification in patients with diabetes can be achieved by innovative and more comfortable technological pathways of patient-physician communication. A variety of biochemical and clinical features can now be reliably assessed by using real-time networks deploying a variety of sensors.2 The so-called e-alerts and e-advisories can then be generated when needed (eg, e-pill medication reminders) to optimize the expected value to the patient. This approach has already been proven simple and cost-effective for the self-management of patients with a variety of chronic diseases3 and therefore might be reliably experimented in patients with diabetes for providing medication as well as blood pressure and laboratory test reminders. Back to top Article Information Correspondence: Dr Lippi, Dipartimento di Patologia e Medicina di Laboratorio, U.O. Diagnostica Ematochimica, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43126 Parma, Italy (giuseppe.lippi@univr.it). Financial Disclosure: None reported. References 1. Morrison F, Shubina M, Turchin A. Encounter frequency and serum glucose level, blood pressure, and cholesterol level control in patients with diabetes mellitus. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(17):1542-155021949161PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref 2. Pavel M, Jimison H, Hayes T, et al. Optimizing medication reminders using a decision-theoretic framework. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2010;160(pt 2):791-79520841794PubMedGoogle Scholar 3. Celler BG, Lovell NH, Basilakis J. Using information technology to improve the management of chronic disease. Med J Aust. 2003;179(5):242-24612924970PubMedGoogle Scholar

Journal

Archives of Internal Medicine – American Medical Association

Published: Feb 27, 2012

Keywords: diabetes mellitus

There are no references for this article.