Telemedicine to improve patients' self-efficacy in managing diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus is becoming a major public health problem. Despite enormous efforts to change the delivery of diabetes care, the outcome has not been entirely positive. In ignoring the role of assisting patients to improve their self-management, the effectiveness of diabetes care is likely to be compromised. However, telecommunication can improve the quality of diabetes care by altering the caring environment and care delivery process. Telemedicine has various applications in diabetes care, including as a method of increasing the efficacy of patients' self-management, which could lead to better control of glycaemia.