The utilization of video-conference shared medical appointments in rural diabetes care

•Diabetes shared medical appointments were remotely delivered through video-conference.•There was improvement in HbA1c in video-shared medical appointments versus usual-care.•There were less ER visits in video-shared medical appointments versus usual-care.•There was patient satisfaction with video-shared medical appointments.•There was increased diabetes care self-efficacy with video-shared medical appointment.

AimTo explore whether Video-Shared Medical Appointments (video-SMA), where group education and medication titration were provided remotely through video-conferencing technology would improve diabetes outcomes in remote rural settings.MethodsWe conducted a pilot where a team of a clinical pharmacist and a nurse practitioner from Honolulu VA hospital remotely delivered video-SMA in diabetes to Guam. Patients with diabetes and HbA1c ≥7% were enrolled into the study during 2013–2014. Six groups of 4–6 subjects attended 4 weekly sessions, followed by 2 bi-monthly booster video-SMA sessions for 5 months. Patients with HbA1c ≥7% that had primary care visits during the study period but not referred/recruited for video-SMA were selected as usual-care comparators. We compared changes from baseline in HbA1c, blood-pressure, and lipid levels using mixed-effect modeling between video-SMA and usual care groups. We also analyzed emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Focus groups were conducted to understand patient’s perceptions.ResultsThirty-one patients received video-SMA and charts of 69 subjects were abstracted as usual-care. After 5 months, there was a significant decline in HbA1c in video-SMA vs. usual-care (9.1 ± 1.9 to 8.3 ± 1.8 vs. 8.6 ± 1.4 to 8.7 ± 1.6, P = 0.03). No significant change in blood-pressure or lipid levels was found between the groups. Patients in the video-SMA group had significantly lower rates of ED visits (3.2% vs. 17.4%, P = 0.01) than usual-care but similar hospitalization rates. Focus groups suggested patient satisfaction with video-SMA and increase in self-efficacy in diabetes self-care.ConclusionVideo-SMA is feasible, well-perceived and has the potential to improve diabetes outcomes in a rural setting.