The Effect of the Telemedicine Service System Application for the Patients with Hypertension at Community Health Practitioner Posts in Gangwon Province

Abstract

<Abstract> Objectives: This study is to identify the effects of utilizing a telemedicine service system on patients with hypertension at home in rural areas. Methods: The study was designed to be a retrospective case-control study. The subjects of this study were 152 patients with hypertension who were managed by community health practitioner posts; using telemedicine service system group (n=76), usual care group (n=76). The data was collected through EMR (electric medical record) from September to December, 2013, and analyzed by descriptive statistics of x 2 /t-test and ANCOVA. Results: The analysis showed that telemedicine service system was an effective way to deal with body weight (F=4.723, p=.031) and BMI (F=5.225, p=.024). Conclusions: This study provides evidence for utilizing the telemedicine service system based on information technology as intervention method in the hypertension management.