For the 17 million Americans living with diabetes, the condition is not only chronic, but fairly expensive. People with diabetes may need to visit their doctor much more often then those without the disease. Those frequent trips to the doctor add up; even with health insurance, co-payments can be as high as $40 a visit or more.
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One solution that is becoming more common in providing both financial and educational support is the practice of e-medicine. With e-medicine, a patient checks their own blood with a home kit, and then uses a diabetes management software program to share their results with their specialist via the Internet or telephone line. Aside from saving them the time spent sitting in a waiting room, e-medicine could also save the patient money.
A recent study shows that patients who transmitted their blood glucose information to their doctors via their telephone line showed no difference in the state of their health than those who went for in-person visits. This saved about half of the cost of a clinic visit.
Another advantage of using diabetes software is the availability of resourceful information on the topic. While a doctor has limited time to give during each office visit, a patient can spend time online reading about diabetes and learning how to manage their disease more effectively.
New diabetic testing devices like the Therasense Tracker also take advantage of high tech devices for managing diabetes.
