Subscribe
Logo small
Search
banner

Diabetes under control: No pain, no fear, better life

MedExpress Team

Medexpress

Published May 30, 2025 07:01

Professor Anna Jeznach-Steinhagen, from the Department of Clinical Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Warsaw Medical University, talks about how continuous glycemic monitoring systems have changed patients' lives.
Diabetes under control: No pain, no fear, better life - Header image

Professor, how have continuous glycemic monitoring systems changed the lives of patients especially those who need to take insulin?

First of all, patients have information all the time regarding what their blood glucose is, that is, how much their sugar is, and previously, in order to have this knowledge, they had to do a fingertip prick and measurement. Consequently, as everyone imagines, they did this much less frequently than we doctors would like, and much less frequently than is needed to get good equalization. Now they don't have to. This is a painless, bloodless method and continuous, meaning patients have the result all the time: for every action they take, for every insulin dose, for every meal, for every physical activity, they see their individual response, which they can observe in the sensor application.

Secondly, we have achieved in medicine much better results of diabetes alignment. So it's alignment that also translates into quality. The better the alignment, the better the time in target range (this is an important parameter on the sensor), that is, the time the patient spends on a daily basis in such results of sugars as a healthy person, the glucometer never gave such parameters. This time in the target range translates into a reduced risk of complications, so de facto again quality and quality of care, but also quality for the patient. The third thing that is very important is that the sensor has sugar drop alarms and high sugar alarms, and this is very important information for the patient.

These alarms can be in apps, they can already be in watches, so they can discreetly vibrate to let the patient know that something is going on with the sugar and that we need to intervene, so we also have fewer emergency events, very alarming, sometimes very dangerous.

It seems to me, what you are talking about, that this also affected the social, professional life of patients....

Of course, because the better aligned the patient, the less tired, tormented by the disease, the more eager for all kinds of social, sports and professional activities.

Such a protected patient is bound to be more willing to take many initiatives in every field. These new technologies, not only sensors, but pumps encourage patients with type 1 diabetes to try to get pregnant, to give birth to healthy babies. They encourage sports! We have many athletes - including professional athletes with diabetes, but also amateur sports.

These people function among us professionally just fine, with discreet support.

What are the current indications for reimbursement of these systems?

Right now we have reimbursement for patients who have insulin, three injections of insulin in type two diabetes. We have for patients with type one diabetes and so-called type three diabetes, and for pregnant women who have gestational diabetes, regardless of the form of treatment, that is, pregnant patients who are only treated with diet can also benefit from such sensors.

Are there still groups that would particularly benefit from using such systems?

We diabetologists urge that such reimbursement be considered for every patient who has at least one insulin injection, because diabetologists know that every even one injection poses a risk of hypoglycemia, a dangerous complication, and for such patients this would be an indication.

On the other hand, global studies show that patients who have type two diabetes, who are taking pills, and perhaps in a short while we will also find that patients with obesity disease, benefit from the use of sensors. We're talking about a few units a year. We're talking about two to four, which is how other countries do it, for educational purposes in order for the patient to learn about the disease during the period of changing forms of treatment, different changes in the patient, so that they can benefit from such monitoring.And coming for a follow-up visit, because these results are not lost, it's a very important thing that these results even if the sensor is taken off and the patient reports back to the doctor after a long period of time, these results can be reconstructed, analyzed and also whether the treatment applied is sufficient can be analyzed.

Szukaj nowych pracowników

Dodaj ogłoszenie o pracę za darmo

Lub znajdź wyjątkowe miejsce pracy!

Read also