ISSN: 2161-1017
Sudhanshu Mishra
India with its huge population has alarming deficit for a quality healthcare setup. Online Medical consultation world over has been shown to bridge the urban rural divide effectively. While the cost effectiveness of the model has not been ascertained, in management of chronic diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension. In recent times due to Covid 19 Pandemic, there has been increased adoptions of Telemedicine and IOT particularly wearables. My observational study tried to study a hybrid Diabetes Management model in which there was a combination of Physical Consultations with Teleconsultations and Remote Diabetes Monitoring with the use of Smartphones. Some patients also measured their vitals using their Wearables particularly Health Bands and Smart Watches. Our Study consisted of 30 patients out of total 90 who came for diabetes management in Authors Private Practice. There was a significant amount of geriatric population (35%) seeking help regarding diabetes using teleconsultaion. There was an expected male predominance (73%) suggesting lack of digital education among the fairer sex. There were a significant number of patients coming from rural and semi urban towns(36%) suggesting huge unmet need of quality diabetes management in these areas and significant number of patients reported increased compliance to medications and improved lifestyle changes in diabetes managment on follow up. This study has helped in devising novel strategies to approach diabetes management and adopting online medical consultation and remote vitals monitoring using IOT as a tool for delivering comprehensive diabetes management.