Telemedicine and face-to-face care for pediatric obesity.

The University of California Davis Medical Center (Sacramento, CA) has pioneered the use of telemedicine in its approach to childhood obesity to cover more than 20 rural clinics in California. In our study, we compared the outcomes of the Telemedicine Weight Management Clinic (TM) with those of its face-to-face (FTF) Weight Management Clinic counterpart over the last 5 years, predicting the results to be equivalent or in favor of TM. All children seen in the TM from June 2006 to June 2011 were included (n=121), and encounter notes in medical records were reviewed.