The digital health space refers to the integration of technology and health care services to improve the overall quality of health care delivery. It encompasses a wide range of innovative and emerging technologies such as wearables, telehealth, artificial intelligence, mobile health, and electronic health records (EHRs). The digital health space offers numerous benefits such as improved patient outcomes, increased access to health care, reduced costs, and improved communication and collaboration between patients and health care providers. For example, patients can now monitor their vital signs such as blood pressure and glucose levels from home using wearable devices and share the data with their doctors in real-time. Telehealth technology allows patients to consult with their health care providers remotely without having to travel to the hospital, making health care more accessible, particularly in remote or rural areas. Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze vast amounts of patient data to identify patterns, predict outcomes, and provide personalized treatment recommendations. Overall, the digital health space is rapidly evolving, and the integration of technology in health

Monday, February 7, 2022

Trends in Telehealth Care for Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Telehealth and Medicine Today

A very large claims data analysis documents widespread adoption of telehealth use by patients with diabetes during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving us insight into the potential role of telehealth as we enter a stage of “new normal” of healthcare delivery in the U.S.

The COVID-19 Telehealth Impact Study was designed to describe the natural experiment of telehealth adoption during the pandemic.  This focused analysis can assist program development for care of large populations of patients with diabetes. 

We compared rates of telehealth use in the one-year pre and one-year post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic among a population of 8,339,633 patients with diabetes.

Compared to a baseline of very low telehealth use in 2019, there was the rapid adoption of telehealth by patients with diabetes in Spring 2020.  27% of diabetics used telehealth in Q2 2020 and use rates declined in the ensuing months to approximately 13%.  Diabetics and their providers used telehealth to address a wide variety of health problems.  77% of telehealth visits addressed diabetes, 53% hypertension, and over 40% of visits addressed mental and behavioral health diagnoses.  Audio-only (telephone visits) accounted for a substantial portion of telehealth encounters (10.0- 16.3%) and will be an important consideration for future telehealth planning.  Over the course of the first 12 months of the pandemic, 98% of diabetics who used telehealth used 4 or fewer telehealth visits.

We believe that telehealth will quickly become a best practice for routine care of patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions.  Telehealth interactions 2-4 times per year supplemented with remote monitoring for glucose, blood pressure and weight have the potential to greatly enhance patient care. Further research will be needed to measure the telehealth impact on glycemic control, patient satisfaction and other outcomes.  We encourage CMS and other payers to embrace and promote use of telehealth based on this real-world experience of patients and providers during the pandemic.

Contributors:

Francis Campion
MITRE Corporation
Lucie Duffy
McLean Hospital
Aaron Burgman
MITRE
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1763-9703
Ricardo Rojas
Mayo Clinic
Lindsey Sangaralingham
Mayo Clinic
Peter Sylvester











Trends in Telehealth Care for Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Telehealth, and Medicine Today
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)