The missing element of telemedicine for diabetes: decision support software.

Telemedicine is coming! President Obama has released a proposed fiscal year 2010 budget that indicates a commitment to advancing health care information technology as a way to cut health care costs and save lives.1 Interest in telemedicine from the business and insurance communities is climbing rapidly. Each week or month, a new telemedicine product for transmitting physiologic data and facilitating communication between patient and health care provider is announced. New trade organizations to promote the use of telemedicine have been formed, such as the CTIA and WWI. Each week brings an announcement of a new telemedicine system or collaboration between a technology company and a patient care organization to deliver telemedicine. New publications, Web sites, and meetings to discuss the implications of wireless communication, mobile health, telemedicine, and other terms for this phenomenon are springing up regularly. A small but rapidly expanding body of research has generally concluded that telemedicine for diabetes offers many benefits compared to in-person visits for selected types of clinical indications, such as for chronic follow-up, review of monitoring data, and assurance of adherence to practice guidelines.2