Data collected over a 15-week period showed that using virtual care to manage diabetes patients in the hospital does not have a negative impact on their glycemic outcomes. This study, aimed at reducing provider and patient exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic, has broader implications for implementing telehealth to diabetes care in remote locations and to limit the transmission of hospital-acquired infections. The study is published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
The article entitled “Inpatient Transition to Virtual Care During COVID-19 Pandemic” describes the use of ‘virtual care’ care for inpatient diabetes care to reduce exposure to the COVID-19 virus and to reduce the use of personal protective equipment. Morgan Jones, MD and coauthors from University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill and Tufts University, Boston, MA, present a model for virtual care in which all face-to-face patient contact was stopped on March 22, 2020. Telehealth included a telephone interview with patients (or a family member or their primary nurse) each morning and occasional telemedicine visits by an endocrinologist. The researchers concluded that glycemic control was similar with the transition to virtual care.
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