Linking here to two resources I published recently:
First, my presentation at the April 2018 UCSF Diabetes CME course. Here are those slides on a 2018 Update in Diabetes Technology.
Second, I wrote “A Clinician’s Guide to the Latest Diabetes Devices” for Medscape recently. Here is the first section of that blog post:
This has been a huge year for technological advances in diabetes management. We are on a rapidly advancing path with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology and finally approaching the holy grail of fully automated, closed-loop insulin delivery. Within a few years, patients with type 1 diabetes may never need to do another fingerstick or have another A1c test. For many clinicians, recent developments may seem to present an array of head-spinning options. Here, I’ll try to cut through the noise and focus on technologies that have the biggest implications for clinical practice and our patients.
CGM Data Directly to Your Smartphone
CGM technology has been advancing rapidly in accuracy, number of options, and ease of use, and the problem of inaccurate, painful, alarming, needy, and annoying CGMs feels long in the past. It is hard to believe that it was as recently as December 2016 that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first decided that a CGM (the Dexcom G5®) was accurate enough to no longer require supplemental fingersticks for insulin dosing decisions.
In 2018, Dexcom released the G6 CGM, which is slimmer (and less likely to snag on clothing); requires no fingerstick calibration; and is the first to have the FDA indication of “interoperable,” meaning that it can “plug and play” in the future with other interoperable devices.
Medicare finally started covering CGMs in 2017, and in June 2018 agreed to stop blocking the ability of the Dexcom G5 (which is reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) to transmit data directly to a smartphone, something most users of the G5 had already benefited from for a few years. This was a big deal, as I believe that the ability to view CGM data directly on a smartphone may be the technology advance that has most positively affected my patients with diabetes.
In the past year, billing codes for CGM improved to enable providers to be reimbursed for analysis and interpretation of CGM data. This brings diabetes management one step closer to population health, where a provider can review CGM data without an office visit; correspond with the patient over the telephone, by email, or by text; and be reimbursed for that work. I plan to try this out in my practice during the next few months, blocking off time every 1-2 weeks to review CGM data in web software and communicate recommendations to patients via our electronic health records portal or telephone, with no scheduled visit required.
Immediate Feedback, No Fingersticks Required
Of everything that has come out recently, Abbott’s FreeStyle® Libre Flash CGM has had the greatest impact on my practice. The Libre is a disk-shaped device worn on the back of the arm (see any recent photo of British prime minister Theresa May). My patients have been consistent in their appraisal that the Libre is relatively or even entirely painless to insert, nonintrusive on the arm, and stays on during activity or contact with water. Most important, it entirely changes their approach to diabetes management.
For more, please continue on to Medscape (free Medscape log-in required)