Telemedizin in der pädiatrisch diabetologischen Schwerpunktpraxis

Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine in pediatric diabetology has become part of care of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their families, especially video consultations. An improvement in glycemic control as well as in therapy satisfaction could be achieved. Different requirements are necessary for implementation in the technical, organizational, and regulatory sense. For implementation, it is important to adapt the work-flow and to create an adequate workplace for video consultation with specific infrastructure. For the actual video consultation with the patient, all digital data should be used, e.g., from blood glucose meters and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices as well as insulin pumps or digital pens, and the upload of these data by the patient beforehand is obligatory. The discussion of the data in a patient-centered manner with the use of graphs and figures derived from the ambulatory glucose profile (AGP) or similar methods should be done as in face-to-face consultations. Another possibility of telemedicine is video education. Here, it is not sufficient just to use known educational material, but this has to be adapted or, if necessary, some parts need to be newly developed. Reimbursement is still insufficient and needs to be improved to make telemedicine economically reasonable for the provider.