A Comparison of Diabetes Group Education as Administered Through Telemedicine Versus as Administered in Person

Diabetes education is important in the treatment of the person with diabetes. A diabetes self-management education program not only educates the patient and his/her family to the basics of diabetes care but also integrates diabetes care into daily life while providing coping skills to adjust to this chronic illness. Unfortunately, comprehensive diabetes care is not available to all persons with diabetes. One obstacle to the provision of comprehensive diabetes care is the unavailability of a diabetes treatment center. many people with diabetes live too far or do not have the transportation to be able to attend education programs that met national standards. We have shown that telemedicine is an effective means to provide comprehensive 1:1 individualized diabetes education to persons with diabetes. We now propose to test the hypothesis that diabetes groups education classes can be provided effectively through telemedicine technology to individuals living in rural areas. Patients with diabetes will received diabetes education via teleconferencing from our Joslin Diabetes center. The participants will be assessed before and after diabetes education via telemedicine using measures of glycemia (A1c) and assessments of patient satisfaction, emotional well being, and behavioral change and compared to results from participants attending our diabetes education classes in-person.