Chronic Disease Management, Remote Monitoring and Treatment and ICT

Lately, I have been checking systematic literature reviews about Chronic Disease Management, Remote Monitoring and Treatment and Information and Communication Technologies:

• Whitten, P. S., Mair, F. S., Haycox, A., May, C. R., Williams, T. L., & Hellmich, S. (2002). Systematic review of cost effectiveness studies of telemedicine interventions. Bmj, 324(7351), 1434–1437.
• Louis, A. A., Turner, T., Gretton, M., Baksh, A., & Cleland, J. G. F. (2003). A systematic review of telemonitoring for the management of heart failure. Eur J Heart Fail, 5(5), 583–590.
• Jaana, M., & Pare, G. (2007). Home telemonitoring of patients with diabetes: a systematic assessment of observed effects. J Eval Clin Pract, 13(2), 242–253.
• Pare, G., Jaana, M., & Sicotte, C. (2007). Systematic review of home telemonitoring for chronic diseases: the evidence base. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 14(3), 269–277.
• Jaana, M., Pare, G., & Sicotte, C. (2009). Home telemonitoring for respiratory conditions: a systematic review. Am J Manag Care, 15(5), 313–320.

I do not want to reproduce all the abstract here,  but some common trends could be identified:

• Lack of cost-effectiveness analysis;
• Lack of Randomized Controlled Trials;
• Difficulties in extrapolating or comparing the results;
• Patients satisfaction and acceptance of the technology.

To sum up, following Pare et al. (2007) “Home telemonitoring of chronic diseases seems to be a promising patient management approach that produces accurate and reliable data, empowers patients, influences their attitudes and behaviors, and potentially improves their medical conditions. Future studies need to build evidence related to its clinical effects, cost effectiveness, impacts on services utilization, and acceptance by health care providers”.

Is not about TECHNOLOGY, is it?