Home Telemonitoring Platforms for Adults with Diabetes Mellitus: A Narrative Review of Literature

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus in adults is a global health burden affecting 382 million people and costing over $612 billion worldwide. Remote patient monitoring is often considered to be a technological solution to the chal-lenges in healthcare delivery, yet many studies have shown mixed results or no effect on patient outcomes. A narrative review of literature was conducted to contribute to the field of technology-driven home healthcare delivery by analyzing the systems in context with the monitoring and intervention technologies. This review analyzed papers with home telemonitoring and intervention systems for adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Technologies used were differentiated into four categories: telephones, mobile devices, computers, and other Internet-connected devices. Our findings suggest no clear association between the type of technology used and the outcomes of the participants. Frequency of monitoring and intervention were distinguishable by diabetic outcome metrics.