Remotely Guiding Diabetes Patients

As a healthcare provider, finding better ways to help patients with diabetes is likely a high priority as a growing number of Americans are diagnosed with diabetes each year. According to the National Diabetes Statistics Report released by the CDC, 11.3% of the US population or 28.7 million people, have diabetes and an additional 8.5 million people have pre-diabetes or are pre-diabetic. Patients with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are in great danger and need to be monitored even before they are diagnosed as diabetic.

For patients with diabetes or heading in that direction, medical oversight is crucial to help them stay healthy, safe, and supported. Thankfully innovations in digital technology like remote patient monitoring have given providers more resources than ever to help patients reach their health goals and manage their chronic conditions from the comfort of their homes.

If you are a provider helping patients in this category, it may be time to leverage some of these tools to help your patients. Here some great ways to provide guidance to your diabetic and pre-diabetic patients remotely…

Use of Connected Health Devices

Connected Health Devices or wearables are a class of consumer-centric medical devices that allow patients to automatically track biometric and activity data.

These wearable technologies can track anything from blood pressure, heart rate, glucose, sleep levels, and more. A few notable brand name examples include FitBit, OURA Ring, and Apple Health and Withings blood pressure cuffs.

By using these remote patient monitoring devices, patients can go about their everyday activities and simultaneously track of their data, taking out the guess work of why they may be feeling adverse symptoms related to their diabetes.

These wearables are easily available to everyone but you could even prescribe and supply these connected health devices to your patients directly.

Monitor Patient Progress

If your patients are using connected health devices and/or tracking their food, that data can be utilized by you as the provider to advise their care.

Because their data can up uploaded to online cloud based applications in real time, you can observe whether your patients’ biometric data is in a good range, or if they need more assistance.

If your patients’ biometrics or activity aren’t where they need to be, you’ll then be able to revise your care strategy and adjust your patients’ medication, monitoring frequency, diet/exercise regimen, etc.

While intake forms, questionnaires and communicating with patients to address questions are a great start, data doesn’t lie. Your patients’ data can reveal underlying factors behind their issues. Using this data to your advantage is the key to enabling meaningful lifestyle changes for your diabetes patients.

Shopping Lists/Meal Plans

Patients, especially those who struggle with diabetes, need help figuring out what to eat and how to eat. As their provider, you have the knowledge to impart on your patients the safest and healthiest options for them.

Gone are the days of printing outdated materials and handing them to your patients for them to lose or throw away by accident. Your patients will need to revisit these food guides on a regular basis in order to remain compliant.

Cloud-based platforms allow you to store shopping lists, meal plans or any other types of documents/information for your patients to download or access digitally whenever they need them.

Using available patient education platforms, with greater monitoring capability and ease of use, you can easily enroll your patients onto a fully trackable, digital daily care plan such as a Mediterranean Diet for Diabetes protocol, exercise regimen and stress reduction plan that is communicated to the patient from an automated platform you control with little effort.

Leverage Telemedicine

While providers are well-versed in utilizing this tool for regular visits, it’s often underutilized for briefer check-in’s with patients that may need face-to-face guidance between office visits. Having a HIPAA compliant telemedicine solution that is easy for both you and your patients to access is essential to connecting virtually and securely when needed.

During these discussions, you can promote compliance through conversations about your patients’ data, their struggles and their accomplishments. The best part is, you can keep it brief or take your time without either party having to deal with in-person logistics.

Scheduling a group teleheath visit with consenting patients who want to learn from individuals who are struggling with similar diabetes related issues is another great option and can be extremely informative and efficient for everyone involved.

Promote Compliance Through Digital Task Completion

In between check ins, it’s great to give your patient something to accomplish. Whatever tasks you decide to assign your patients, making it available to them digitally allows them to access it quickly and they are less likely to forget your instruction.

Begin by creating simple tasks and fewer tasks for patients who are just beginning their health journey and build on those tasks as they are more well-versed in their new care plan.

For example, simple tasks could be to watch an informative video. A more involved set of tasks could include requesting patient feedback in the form of a journal entry, along with tracking what they ate that day. Optimal condition management through goal setting, as recommended in a CDC-approved Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), is key to improving a person’s quality of life.

By offering tasks to your patients as part of their diabetes care plan, you can help them to set goals, measure them and reach those goals. Work with your patient to set goals for what they’d like to accomplish or what health related metrics you’d like to reach. A general goal could be to follow their plan consistently for a week while a more health-centric goal could be to lower their blood sugar over a set period of time.

Every day you can keep track together whether they’re remaining compliant and scheduled to meet or exceed their goals.

Offer Additional Support

If your practice is able to go above and beyond to connect with patients, creating a more open door type policy for your digital discussions and establishing available hours with patients is a great way for them to know that they can lean on you throughout their health journey.

If you’re looking for a solution that allows you to easily connect with, educate and monitor your patients, check out BodySite.com.

We offer a 30 Day All-Access Free Trial to the platform. Come see the difference BodySite can make in your practice and sign up today!

 

SOURCES:

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html