Study of the Effect of Telemedicine on Glycemic Control for Patients With Diabetes and Treated With Insulin

Diabetes is currently one of the major health challenges. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the number of people with diabetes has tripled in the last 20 years and will reach 463 million cases in 2020. This chronic disease causes degenerative complications that affect the quality of life of patients and increase the morbidity and mortality rate. This is due to limited access to health professionals, inadequate patient education and especially poor self-management of their disease which hinders adequate glycemic control of diabetes. The daily routine of a type 1 diabetic patient includes self-monitoring of blood glucose levels as well as several insulin injections per day or the use of an insulin pump. However, this treatment does not prevent the occurrence of micro and/or macroangiopathic complications, especially when the diabetes is poorly controlled. Therefore, optimal and large-scale glycemic control can have a significant clinical, social and economic impact. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) has shown that intensive glycemic control delays or prevents the occurrence of microvascular and macrovascular complications. Intensive treatment, education and support for diabetes self-management improves glycated hemoglobin levels, reducing the risk of developing degenerative complications. This is accompanied by a positive psychosocial and behavioral effect. It is in this context that telemedicine, via remote monitoring, can improve glycemic control. Diabetes remains one of the most suitable specialties for telemedicine, especially with the advent of continuous glucose measurements reimbursed by health insurance since 2017.

Since the 1990s, several telemonitoring projects have demonstrated the value of constant support for diabetic patients, resulting in a significant improvement in HbA1c; the patient becomes an actor in his or her management, with better appropriation of the disease and better compliance. Remote monitoring is one of the 5 telemedicine procedures defined in France. It allows a medical professional to remotely interpret the data necessary for a patient's medical follow-up and to make decisions regarding the patient's care.

The French health authorities have set up national experiments on remote monitoring of diabetes under real conditions, such as the ETAPES program, whose objective is to evaluate the clinical, medico-economic and quality of life benefits of patients who benefit from remote monitoring. This program has 3 components: remote medical monitoring of patients including remote interpretation of patient results and adaptation of treatment, therapeutic support through face-to-face or remote sessions and the use of a remote monitoring platform that provides the link between the patient and the medical team.

In December 2019, the endocrinology department of the CHSF decided to implement the ETAPES program via the LIBREVIEW technical solution in order to better support unbalanced insulin-treated diabetic patients.