The impact of telemedicine on patient self-management processes and clinical outcomes for patients with Types I or II Diabetes Mellitus in the United States: A scoping review

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to identify peer-reviewed medical literature on the use of telemedicine in patients with Types I or II DM in the United States, assess its impact on self-management processes and clinical outcomes of care, and to delineate research gaps.

Methods: We utilized a structured scoping review protocol to conduct this research. We searched the published medical literature utilizing two databases, PubMed and CINHAL, and we included all original research articles published prior to July 20th, 2018. Using a 4-step systematic approach, we identified, reviewed, extracted and summarized data from all relevant studies.

Results: We identified 47 articles overall. Telemedicine impact was reported as positive in articles addressing the following components of patient self-management: adherence to blood glucose monitoring, day-to-day decision-making related to self-care, and adherence with medications. The most commonly reported clinical outcome was HbA1c level. Few or no studies evaluated impact on long term clinical outcomes such as blindness, amputation, cardiovascular events, development of chronic kidney disease, or mortality.

Discussion: This scoping review provides important information about studies conducted in the United States evaluating the impact of telemedicine on patient self-management and on clinical outcomes in patients with DM.

Conclusions: Results suggest that telemedicine has a positive impact on self-management processes and on HbA1c levels. However, future evaluative reviews are necessary to confirm and quantitate the impact of telemedicine on self-management processes and primary studies are necessary to evaluate its impact on long term clinical outcomes.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Outcome assessment (health care); Telehealth; Telemedicine; e-Health.