Continuous glucose monitoring in diabetes

Diabetes never takes a day off, which means neither can people living with the condition. If they’re lucky enough to live somewhere with access to diagnosis and care, people with diabetes only get a few hours of support from a nurse or doctor throughout the year, and are left to handle their diabetes by themselves the rest of the time. 

There’s so much to learn, track, and think about when living with diabetes. Calculating carbs and insulin, glucose monitoring, and injecting medication, logging blood sugar values, and incessantly planning for the “what ifs” costs a lot of nerves and makes it very difficult to translate it all into a daily routine that fits an individual’s lifestyle. Throw into the mix that the body is often unpredictable, and even doing everything “right” won’t always protect people from fluctuating blood sugar levels and the highs and lows that follow. It can be quite hard to feel that diabetes is all that life is about.

Taking control of diabetes management

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a tool that can help people with diabetes monitor their glucose values regularly throughout the day and night, and they’ve been shown to greatly improve glucose control and reduce the incidence and impact of hypoglycaemia.1,2 

Because the wearable device automatically measures glucose levels every few minutes and sends real-time updates to a CGM app, people with diabetes have a clear overview of what’s been happening in the body. With this information, they’re then able to read trends and predict if a high or low is likely to happen. CGMs are a powerful tool for helping people with diabetes be proactive rather than reactive in managing their condition.3

The CGM system itself consists of three simple parts – a sensor, a transmitter and a receiver.  As CGM technology continues to evolve, we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with glucose measurement, helping to overcome unmet needs by empowering people with diabetes to make confident decisions about their care and plan for the day or night ahead.