Changing Trends in Diabetic Care - The age of CGMs

Continuous glucose monitoring using skin sensors has emerged as a recent major advancement in diabetic care. It gives both the patient and the doctor real time insight into blood glucose levels which gives them an idea about the daily trend rather than just isolated GRBS values.

Getting live updates about their blood glucose levels help patients to become a part of their diabetic management rather than just being mere spectators.The visual patterns provided by the device is easy to recognise and helps patients understand how food intake, stress and exercise affect blood glucose levels.. It also prevents hypoglycemia through pre-set alarms and can be life saving. Avoiding frequent fingerpricks also contributes to its increased liking among patients.

The adoption of these devices has been widespread in developed countries but is still lacking in developing and under developed regions. Many challenges remain including cost, lack of awareness and lack of access. Accuracy may be compromised especially during periods of rapid glucose changes, questioning is reliability.

In conclusion, the advancement of these devices has paved the way for the start of a more personalised diabetic care. Actionable data provided by these devices improves glycemic outcomes and helps patients to be a part of their own management.

References:

1. diabetes.org/advocacy/cgm-continuous-glucose-monitors

2. idf.org/about-diabetes/continuous-glucose-monitoring