According to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB), 62.4 million people were living with diabetes in India in 2011. As per estimates by the International Diabetes Federation, nearly 101 million will be affected by diabetes in India by 2030. The prevalence of diabetes in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad ranges from 8-18 percent which is high as compared to rural areas. But studies indicate that the prevalence of diabetes in rural areas is on the rise and in some areas, it’s more than in urban areas. Also, a significant proportion of India’s population (70%) live in rural areas where screening is seldom carried out. Lack of physicians, limited access to healthcare, transport issues, and unaffordability are some of the major factors that create major obstacles to diabetes management in rural areas. Not only are there many people with diabetes in rural India, but awareness levels are low. Awareness and knowledge about diabetes was assessed among the general population, as well as in people with diabetes in Phase I of the ICMR-INDIAB study. Only 43.2% of the overall study population had even heard about a condition called diabetes.
Thanks to the advancement of technology and the inception of telemedicine, there is a growing opportunity to improve diabetes care in resource-limited rural areas of the country. Using a combination of innovative tools such as telemedicine in addition to using locally available talent and personnel, a significant impact can be made in large communities in terms of mass screening for diabetes, increased awareness of diabetes, prevention at various levels, improved HbA1c levels, and provision of health care for various complications of diabetes.
Telemedicine is the Need of the Hour for Diabetes Management and Prevention in Rural Areas
The present scenario in rural areas of India indicates that urgent interventions are necessary to curb the epidemic of diabetes and its complications at the grassroots level. The gap present in providing diabetes care in rural areas can be filled by the use of telemedicine. Telemedicine is a tool that uses telecommunication to support health care in remote zones, and its primary purpose is to facilitate an interaction between the patient and the health care provider to achieve improved treatment and lower treatment costs. It can help reduce the burden for health care personnel so that only those patients with more advanced diabetic conditions requiring tertiary-level treatment need to be brought to the specialist hospitals in cities for further management of the disease.
The ripple effect of an increasing diabetes population in rural areas of India has resulted in increased costs and overburdened physicians, which has exposed the shortcomings of the traditional care models for the management of diabetes in which the typical clinic visit is about 30 min and is conducted every three to six months through regular appointments. Developing a new model of diabetes care with telemedicine is essential to accommodate the overwhelming number of patients while providing a good quality of diabetes care.
How Telemedicine Can Prove Useful in Tackling the Rising Epidemic of Diabetes
Proper and Consistent Monitoring: The chronic condition of diabetes requires consistent and thorough monitoring. With the help of telemedicine, doctors can get a twenty-four-hour profile of the patient that allows a better understanding of the condition to treat it properly.
Better Patient Engagement: One of the biggest hurdles of treatment, be it for diabetes or any other health condition in rural areas is the lack of availability of resources. Patients need to travel miles to get access to good healthcare facilities. As a result, there is a lack of engagement on the patients’ part to get treated. However, with telemedicine, patients in rural areas can access specialist medical support from their homes which not only removes the location barriers of treatment but also leads to better patient engagement.
Assistance for Lifestyle Modifications: Lifestyle modifications are a critical aspect of diabetes care which includes diabetes self-management education (DSME), nutrition therapy, diabetes self-management support (DSMS), smoking cessation, physical activity, counselling, and psychosocial care. Diabetes self-management education and support programs have the necessary elements in their curriculum to prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes. In most rural areas, people often lack the knowledge of lifestyle modifications that are important to prevent the onset of diabetes or keep the disease in check. Telemedicine intervention methods provide an opportunity to address this issue by regularly following up with patients at home and helping them to adopt self-care behaviours or lifestyle modifications.
Final Words
Telemedicine can help to bring in an element of personalized care in the prevention and management of diabetes. Patients are now being empowered to manage their health and doctors can provide a timely and targeted intervention through telemedicine. These advances save time and cost because important data can be collected remotely and virtual management of health conditions like diabetes can replace routine visits to a clinic.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
