Establishment of Blood Glucose Monitoring System Using the Internet

Establishment of Blood Glucose Monitoring System Using the Internet Hyuk-Sang Kwon , MD 1 , Jae-Hyoung Cho , MD 1 , Hee-Soo Kim , MD 1 , Bok-Re Song , RN 2 , Seung-Hyun Ko , MD, PHD 1 , Jung-Min Lee , MD 1 , Sung-Rae Kim , MD, PHD 1 , Sang-Ah Chang , MD, PHD 1 , Hee-Seung Kim , RN, PHD 2 , Bong-Yun Cha , MD, PHD 1 , Kwang-Woo Lee , MD, PHD 1 , Ho-Young Son , MD, PHD 1 , Jin-Hee Lee , MS 3 , Won-Chul Lee , MD, PHD 3 and Kun-Ho Yoon , MD, PHD 1 1 Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea 2 College of Nursing, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea 3 Department of Preventive Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea Address correspondence and reprint requests to Kun-Ho Yoon, MD, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Kangnam St. Mary’s Hospital, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Ku Seoul, Korea, 137-701. E-mail: yoonk{at}catholic.ac.kr Abstract OBJECTIVE —The Internet is used worldwide as a communication tool. To improve the quality of diabetes control, we investigated the effectiveness of an Internet-based blood glucose monitoring system (IBGMS) on controlling the changes in HbA 1c levels. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —We conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 110 patients who visited the outpatient clinic at the Kangnam St. Mary’s Hospital for 3 months. The study subjects were treated with IBGMS for 12 weeks, and the control group received the usual outpatient management over the same period. HbA 1c and other laboratory tests were performed twice, once at the beginning of the study and again at the end of the study. RESULTS —The test results from the beginning of the study established that there were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to age, sex, diabetes duration, BMI, blood pressure, HbA 1c , and other laboratory data. On follow-up examination 12 weeks later, HbA 1c levels were significantly decreased from 7.59 to 6.94% within the intervention group ( P < 0.001). At the end of the study, HbA 1c levels in the intervention group were significantly lower than in the control group after adjusting the baseline HbA 1c (6.94 vs. 7.62%; P < 0.001, respectively). Among patients with baseline HbA 1c