What is the Future of Therapeutic Education? The Italian Scenario and the Covid-19 Pandemic Lesson

The exponential increase in cases of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), particularly in developing countries, is combined with the progressive failure of healthcare facilities to provide adequate assistance. The role of Therapeutic Education (TE) in the treatment of T2DM has long been validated. However, despite efforts to implement educational interventions, these have proved to be largely insufficient in meeting current needs. Today, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires a greater complexity of care that calls for an alternative approach in educational intervention. Therefore, Diabetology, as well as modern Medicine, must look into digitization as a possible solution. The increasingly widespread diffusion of internet and the means for accessing it have in fact triggered a full-fledged race to computerization, a growth that is not always consistent. TE cannot be oblivious of these new developments. The digital world offers opportunities for reviewing and updating TE, particularly amid the COVID-19 crisis, without dismissing its recent and prestigious past. This new TE approach however requires attention, and new skills need to be acquired and extensively tested.