"Progetto Diabete Calabria": Proposal for a care model for type 2 diabetes mellitus

The "Progetto Diabete Calabria" project aims to set up a regional telemedicine network for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The main goals are to provide a good level of care without increasing costs, by standardizing procedures, meeting the patient's needs through simplified management of the disease. The key features are the methods of patient recruitment and data exchange between general practitioners and specialized centers. After a little more than a year, among the 23,198 patients analyzed here, the prevalence of men with diabetes mellitus has risen from 8.3% to 9.4% and women from 7.5% to 8.3%, and 205 new diabetic patients have been identified. Similar increases have been recorded for the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia. These data, although preliminary, show that an integrated management model for chronic diseases, focused on type 2 diabetes mellitus, is feasible in this local context. Its cost-effectiveness will be evaluated in the near future.