Evaluation of the effectiveness of remote foot temperature monitoring for prevention of amputation in a large integrated healthcare system

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posted on 2023-06-15, 16:31 authored by Alyson J Littman, Andrew K Timmons, Anna Korpak, KC Gary Chan, Kenneth T Jones, Suzanne Shirley, Kyle Nordrum, Jeffrey Robbins, Suhail Masadeh, Ernest Moy

Introduction: We evaluated the effectiveness of remote foot temperature monitoring (RTM) in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

Research Design and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study that included 924 eligible patients enrolled in RTM between 2019 and 2021 who were matched up to 3:1 to 2757 non-enrolled comparison patients. We used conditional Cox regression to estimate adjusted cause-specific hazard ratios (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for lower extremity amputation (LEA, primary outcome) and all-cause hospitalization and death (secondary outcomes).

Results: RTM was not associated with LEA incidence (adjusted HR= 0.92, 95% CI 0.62-1.37) or all-cause hospitalization (aHR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.82-1.14), but was inversely associated (reduced risk) with death (aHR=0.63, 95% CI 0.49-0.82).

Conclusions: This study does not provide support that RTM reduces the risk of LEA or all-cause hospitalization in individuals with a history of diabetic foot ulcer. Randomized controlled trials can overcome important limitations.