'We Need to Move Forward': Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Diabetes

Hi. Today I am going to discuss the Endocrine Society guidelines^[1] for the use of devices in the treatment of diabetes. I was fortunate enough to be the chairwoman for this committee and it was a wonderful experience, in part because I had such great committee members with whom I worked.

The bottom line of our recommendation was not only that technology is advancing, but that there are tools that should be available to most patients with type 1 diabetes and some patients with type 2 diabetes.

The fundamental premise that we all came to is the true need for patients to have access to continuous glucose monitoring. This is a monitor that is placed on the patient's body for about a week and gives a signal with interstitial blood glucose levels to a receiver (it could be an iPhone or a pump) so that patients can see their blood glucose levels every 5 minutes and see the trends as blood sugar levels rise and fall.

I am at the point where I use these so much with my type 1 diabetes patients that I almost have a problem not having a patient bring me their sensor data. Back in the old days, we used to think that everybody should have finger sticks and bring their finger-stick data in.