APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN DIABETES CARE - A REVIEW .1. COMPUTERS FOR DATA-COLLECTION AND INTERPRETATION

The paper reviews the contribution of information technology (IT) to d iabetes care. An appraisal of this topic with respect to insulin-depen dent (ripe 1) diabetic patients is carried out in view of the landmark findings of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial(DCCT) which has demonstrated that maintaining tight blood glucose control can dela y the onset and slow the progression of the later life complications o f diabetes. The review starts with the clinical background and the mai n features of the control schema in which diabetic patients receive in sulin therapy. hn overview is then provided of recent IT initiatives i n diabetes care, and the application of IT techniques to assist in the diagnosis and characterization of patients with diabetes mellitus is considered. The role of IT approaches for short-term glycaemic control is discussed and the utilization of computers for collecting, viewing and interpreting home monitoring blood glucose data is reviewed; both quantitative and qualitative techniques bring considered. In the seco nd paper the role of decision support tools for planning insulin thera py using clinical algorithms, hand-held devices, knowledge-based appro aches, telemedicine techniques and interactive simulations is reviewed , and the validation and clinical evaluation of these tools is discuss ed. The likely impact of the routine clinical application of implantab le/non-invasive blood glucose monitoring devices is also considered. F inally, the application of computers as teaching tools is reviewed and the ways in which such educational approaches might be applied for di sseminating the benefits of the DCCT trial more widely are discussed.