APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN DIABETES CARE - A REVIEW .2. COMPUTERS FOR DECISION-SUPPORT AND EDUCATION

This paper concludes a review of the contribution of information techn ology to diabetes care. The role of decision support tools for plannin g insulin therapy using various clinical algorithms, knowledge-based a pproaches and interactive simulations is discussed, and certain teleme dicine approaches to therapy are considered. The validation and clinic al evaluation of these tools is reviewed, as is the likely impact of t he routine clinical application of implantable/non-invasive blood gluc ose monitoring devices. Finally, the application of computers as leach ing tools is considered, and ways in which such educational approaches might be applied for disseminating the benefits of the Diabetes Contr ol and Complications Trial more widely are discussed.