Utilization of Telehealth Technology to Develop and Implement a Comprehensive Management Initiative for Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Chronic diseases affect over 90 million Americans and result in high health care costs and tremendous personal and societal burden. Diabetes is, arguably, among the most pervasive and researched chronic diseases. Research shows that much of the costs and burden of diabetes can be mitigated with appropriate education, care- and self-management. This project, called the Comprehensive Management for Chronic Disease (CMICD), focused on innovative technology approachs to improving education about and management of diabetes. The CMICD included: virtual education techniques for training nurses (VNE); an internet-based medical informatics tool for the management of people with diabetes called the Comprehensive Diabetes Management Program (CDMP) and its associated telehealth eye care program that can remotely evaluate eye disease without need of dilation or a specialist to conduct to conduct a live exam; a video cell phone approach to providing patients with daily, personalized reminders and education; and a computer-assisted decision support (CADS), other components were or were to be deployed and tested in rural PA in collaboration with Mt. Aloysius College (VNE and CDMP/telehealth eye care program), and others were deployed and tested at Walter Reed Health Care System (Cell Phone). Using a variety of study designs, this project examined both patient outcomes and providers' changes in knowledge as appropriate. Although the CMICD focused on the management of diabetes, the management approaches within the CMICD are applicable to a variety of other chronic diseases as well, including asthma, depression, and arthritis. This Final Report presents the results of this project.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA612508

Entities

People

  • Robert A. Vigersky

Organizations

  • Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena
  • Eye Diseases
  • Health Services
  • Hypertension
  • Information Science
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Mobile Phones
  • Public Health
  • Telemedicine
  • Text Messaging
  • Vascular Diseases

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.
  • Medical or Health Care Field.