Digital Health in Diabetes Care: A Narrative Review from Monitoring to the Management of Systemic and Neurologic Complications.

Background/

Objectives

Despite the recent advances in glucose-lowering therapy, achieving diabetes control remains challenging. With the advancing progress of innovative digital health technologies, management of diabetes is taking advantage from telehealth and telemedicine, which allow for remote assistance, virtual visits, and monitoring of diabetes-related parameters, and facilitate the exchange of documents and reports to support clinical decisions. We aim to provide an overview of the impact of telehealth and digital technologies on the care of people with diabetes, from therapeutic management to the assessment of complications.

Methods

A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed to assess the impact of digital technologies and telemedicine on diabetes care.

Results

From the comprehensive PubMed search, 86 peer-reviewed studies were selected based on relevance, clinical significance, and methodological quality. The selected literature addressed digital health tools such as continuous glucose monitoring, connected insulin pens, automatic insulin delivery systems, mobile applications, and telemedicine systems. These interventions were associated with improved glycemic control (e.g., reduced HbA1c, increased time in range), better adherence to therapy, enhanced patient engagement, and more efficient management of complications such as neuropathy, retinopathy, and cardiovascular risk.

Conclusions

Telehealth may offer a fully patient-centered approach to disease management through a tailored individual management plan. This may lead to an improvement in adherence to proper therapy and lifestyle, resulting in a subsequent increase in the quality of life.