Managing diabetes mellitus using information technology: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To review published evidences about using information technology interventions in diabetes care and determine their effects on managing diabetes. DESIGN: Systematic review of information technology based interventions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: MEDLINE®/PubMed were electronically searched for articles published between 2004/07/01 and 2014/07/01. A comprehensive, electronic search strategy was used to identify eligible articles. Inclusion criteria were defined based on type of study and effect of information technology based intervention in relation to glucose control and other clinical outcomes in diabetic patients. Studies must have used a controlled design to evaluate an information technology based intervention. A total of 3613 articles were identified based on the searches conducted in MEDLINE from PubMed. After excluding duplicates (n = 6), we screened titles and abstracts of 3607 articles based on inclusion criteria. The remaining articles matched with inclusion criteria (n = 277) were reviewed in full text, and 210 articles were excluded based on exclusion criteria. Finally, 67 articles complied with our eligibility criteria and were included in this study. RESULTS: In this study, the effect of various information technology based interventions on clinical outcomes in diabetic patients extracted and measured from selected articles is described and compared to each other. CONCLUSION: Information technology based interventions combined with the usual care are associated with improved glycemic control with different efficacy on various clinical outcomes in diabetic patients.