Telemedicine in diabetes care: in rural India, a new prevention project seeks to fill in the screening gap.

Abstract

In developing countries like India, noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes have already replaced communicable diseases as the major cause of death. According to the recent Indian Council of Medical Research?s India Diabetes study, an estimated 62.4 million people in India have diabetes [1]. With increasing urbanization and industrialization, we can only expect this number to grow. Moreover, all diabetes efforts in India are currently focused in urban areas, while 70% of India?s population lives in rural locations. The lack of awareness due to illiteracy, lack of trained professionals (doctors and paramedical staff trained in diabetes), limited access to health care due to problems with transport and infrastructure, and unaffordability due to poverty are some of the major obstacles to delivering diabetes health care to rural regions. Screening for diabetes is hardly ever done in rural regions, resulting in a much larger burden of undiagnosed diabetes and potentially leading to higher rates of diabetes-related complications due to delayed diagnosis and/or improper treatment.