Continuous glucose monitoring for diabetics

We follow a lot of patients with diabetes.  Care for patients with diabetes has changed tremendously in the last 5-10 years.  There used to be a few oral pills patients could take and then they would take insulin.  Now, there are all kinds of different alternatives.

One of the most interesting and helpful tools is continuous glucose monitoring.  This is exactly what it sounds like.  You can monitor the glucose levels of a diabetic patient, or actually any patient, in real time, constantly.  Best of all, this does not require fingersticks and needles over and over.  This is revolutionary for some of our patients.  Not only do they know what their blood glucose level is all the time, but they can see in real time the impact of their lifestyle choices on their blood glucose levels.  For instance, they can watch their glucose go down when they exercise, or they can see the impact of a high carb meal on their glucose level.  Finally, these tools are really helpful in preventing hypoglycemia, which can be a dangerous side effect of insulin and some medicines. 

Medicare pays for these monitors for anyone who is on insulin OR for certain people who have had serious hypoglycemia.  Each commercial insurer has different criteria on when they will pay for it.  

They basically consist of a little stuck on device you wear on the back of your arm which measures your glucose and transmits it to your cell phone or a monitor device.  You can swim and shower and bathe with them, play tennis, whatever you normally do, except no scuba diving, and you have to take them off when you get an MRI. 

The two most common systems are Dexcomm and FreeStyle Libre.  They both work in a similar manner.  

If you have diabetes and are interested in better control, please come see us at Hampstead Internal Medicine.  There are lots of great options out there.