The project began in Chiolé in October 2021, and they have attended electronically to adult patients who already had a diagnosis of DM1.
The Digital Hospital of Chile is working with the Chiloé Health Service to implement a strategy that works with patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1). The strategy for patients living with type 1 diabetes has begun as a pilot project on the Island of Chiloé, specifically in the city of Ancud where, despite its population of around 40,000 people, 15 people live with type 1 diabetes.
In Chile, according to data from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there are about 13,500 people diagnosed with DM1. Likewise, the Fundación Diabetes Juvenil de Chile (FDJ) has more than 8,000 registered members, of which 50% is between 10 and 30 years old.
In this way, projects that work around the population that lives with this condition are necessary. For this reason, the Digital Hospital has the Cells and Diabetes project, which is directed by the diabetologist Carmen Gloria Bezanilla.
“We started a system that does not exist in the country. DM 1 is treated in hospitals, it is secondary or tertiary care in reference hospitals. And Hospital Digital works with Primary Care in Type 2 Diabetes. So a synergy was generated between different departments and divisions of the Ministry of Health so that Hospital Digital could provide services to DM 1. We contacted Chiloé, whose Health Service has always been very proactive to collaborate with strategies, because we are developing this model”, explained the specialist.
In addition, as Dr. Bezanilla explains, unlike patients with type 2 diabetes, DM1 patients require multidisciplinary and specialized medical care, and also require that the patient's family be involved in the treatment.
The Digital Hospital in collaboration with the FDJ, have toured hospitals in various locations, to manage care for these patients. “We have provided synchronous attention, that is, the doctors and teams from Chiloé present the cases to us electronically. We make our suggestions, a resolution is made and a specific treatment is suggested for a patient, which we have been doing since the end of last year”, explained Dr. Bezanilla.
In this way they seek to establish the workflow so that this model can be replicated in the rest of the country in the 29 provincial health services.
