This study was presented at Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes, 14th International Conference, Virtual, June 2021.

The Covid‐19 pandemic has been a new experience to the whole world and to tackle the Covid-19 mishaps physicians & scientists had experimented with all the existing therapies & technologies in various combinations. Over the past 1 year, at least 20% of those experiments provided fruitful results worthy enough to fight a pandemic that is unlikely to settle soon.

      During the pandemic, where people fear being out of home even for hospital visits and carry a mental agony of their treatment follow-ups, telemedicine consultations can be an effective strategy to overcome the hurdles especially in the management of diabetes. Jothydev’s Diabetes Research Centre has been in the forefront of using technologies in diabetes‐telemedicine (TM) and remote monitoring of diabetes using the Diabetes Tele Management System‐ DTMS® since 1997. Recent advancements such as Bluetooth enabled glucometers, Guardian Connect, Libre etc., were incorporated in virtual consultations via telemedicine whenever indicated. Since more than 20,000 of our patients were familiar with and well versed in using telemedicine before lockdown, we organized multiple Zoom webinars to deliver advices on the necessity to urgently reach customized treatment targets. Option for Virtual Covid IP was also provided to registered patients who contracted Covid. Virtual Covid IP involved dedicated WhatsApp groups with patient, family members and a team of 3 doctors, 4 nurses, 2 diabetes educators and 2 dietitians ensuring 24x7 care, every 2–3‐hour remote monitoring of temperature, glucose, blood pressure, respiratory rate and pulse rate. Remote glucose monitoring with CGM was initiated if required with training via WhatsApp video. In our recent publication in Diabetes and Metabolism Clinical Research and Reviews, blood glucose has been now recommended as the fifth vital sign as well.

      The use of TM and remote monitoring for diabetes and for Covid has been found to result in 90.9% success with a substantial 85% adopting this technology post-Covid when compared to 60% pre-Covid. User-friendly cost effective diabetes technologies are poorly utilized in India. If Covid is facilitating a transformation to popularize advanced technologies in health care, it might save millions.

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