Marcel Gmünder, global head of Roche Diabetes Care explains how blood glucose monitoring is personalising diabetes care through digital connectivity.
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Diabetes is one of today’s greatest healthcare challenges, affecting about 537 million people worldwide. By 2045, this is expected to increase to 783 million people. It is estimated that in low- and middle-income countries, there are approximately 368 million people with diabetes, with a large proportion still undiagnosed. These numbers illustrate the burden diabetes means to societies and individuals. We need to ease this load, making life easier for people with diabetes and those who care for them. Diabetes is as unique as the person managing it, and we need to treat it that way.
Technology’s influence on diabetes management
With its inception over 40 years ago, blood glucose monitoring (BGM) technology revolutionised diabetes management. Suddenly, people with diabetes went from weekly medical appointments that provided only a brief snapshot of their blood sugar values to being able to directly observe the influence of nutrition, activity, and lifestyle on their bodies. By simplifying the collection of accurate blood glucose data, self-monitoring gave people a deeper sense of control over their diabetes than they had ever imagined possible.
Today, the tracking of our daily lives is simpler and more popular than ever before, and many people with diabetes are already utilising several devices and tools – from apps for nutrition to other health-sensor technologies like fitness trackers, blood pressure cuffs or weight scales – to give them an overview of their health status. After seeing how much blood glucose self-monitoring has improved the quality of life for people with diabetes over the last four decades, it is exciting to think about the value all this trackable health data could create if pulled together and turned into insights about an individual’s diabetes and overall health.
The promise of data and connectivity
Digital connectivity and the integration of data offer a lot of opportunity for innovation in diabetes management, especially when it comes to personalisation. When we take BGM – an established technology widely viewed as one of the most accurate, effective, and inexpensive diabetes tools – and partner it with a digital solution, such as a diabetes management app, it becomes a powerful tool for keeping track of and generating insights from relevant data.
For a person with diabetes, having this information all in one place and seeing how their choices and behaviours impact blood sugar patterns can be educational and motivating. For healthcare professionals, it becomes a tool to identify patients' status and needs; data points and readings become insights to adapt treatment plans to the individual’s needs.
Tomorrow’s technology for today’s relief
The more data there is to work with, the more personalised daily diabetes management becomes, and the more likely it is to have better outcomes. At Roche, we provide a digital and connected therapeutic approach called integrated Personalised Diabetes Management (iPDM) to strengthen patient care by integrating digital solutions into an open ecosystem that can quickly turn data into meaningful insights. Clinical studies have already demonstrated that holistic and supportive use of data sources facilitated in the iPDM process often results in better-informed therapy decisions. And that can lead to better outcomes: connected solutions and the insights they generate have been shown to improve glycaemic control.
Real-world evidence over a four-month period revealed that BGM, when connected to our digital management apps, significantly improved the percentage of blood glucose measurements in range for people living with type 2 diabetes – helping them stay engaged and more consistent with the self-management of their condition for better health outcomes and the prevention of secondary complications.
BGM connectivity has also had a positive effect on the psychological challenges of living with diabetes, with previous studies revealing a reduction in diabetes distress for people using BGM in combination with mobile health apps. Moreover, digital systems are addressing the growing needs of remote patient therapy by offering more patient choice, improving access to care for people in rural areas, enabling better communication for more effective consultations, and providing real-time data for immediate and individualised clinical insights.
The future of BGM is personal
Getting the right mix of solutions to the right person at the right time can ease the burden on individuals, healthcare professionals, healthcare systems and society. By connecting the information that counts, people with diabetes and those who care for them can feel confident that treatment has been tailored to their specific needs.
As we move forward, continuous evolution and technological innovations will remain crucial to further enhancing accuracy, affordability, and accessibility of diabetes care for everyone, especially critical with diabetes on the rise globally. By embracing these ever-more connected advancements in BGM, millions of people living with diabetes can have access to tools that help them feel supported in their daily diabetes care and connected to their healthcare teams.
