Bigfoot has actually been on the transfer these final couple of months! Might and June have been thrilling for our workforce, with a number of diabetes-specific conferences presenting a possibility to be taught in regards to the newest analysis in diabetes care. Having attended the Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD), American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) Annual Meeting, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 82nd Scientific Sessions and the Endocrine Society (ENDO) Annual Conference, I had the chance to attach with and be taught from endocrinologists and diabetes educators from internationally. At Bigfoot, we imagine within the energy of understanding key insights – so I assigned myself the duty of figuring out frequent themes from my expertise at these conferences. I’m desirous to share a abstract of matters that simply may spark some dialogue in your conversations about diabetes care.
Sooner developments are essential
There have been essential developments in diabetes know-how over the previous 30 years, however there may be nonetheless room for enchancment. The Diabetes Applied sciences 2022 session at AACE walked by means of a timeline of diabetes know-how improvement, and it is extra obvious now than ever that individuals with diabetes are anxiously awaiting higher options to assist them handle their diabetes. The diabetes group is stuffed with good and progressive individuals, individuals who have taken management of their very own tech when marketed merchandise aren’t assembly their wants. Many firms are stepping as much as prioritize this space, and this is without doubt one of the fundamental causes I joined the Bigfoot workforce. I get to assist drive significant change for individuals with kind 1 and sort 2 on a number of every day injections (MDI).
Communication is essential
As therapies change, and innovation advances, what stays the identical is the foundational significance of patient-centered care and communication. Suppliers ought to proceed to have open dialogue with their sufferers together with ongoing conferences on progress to help glycemic management. It’s essential to keep in mind that no two sufferers are precisely alike, and variations are extraordinarily frequent amongst this group. This ongoing collaboration offers a greater understanding of affected person must suppliers. After prescribing preliminary dosing, remedy settings virtually all the time require changes primarily based on the affected person’s response. That’s why discussions between sufferers and their well being care professionals (HCPs) and groups are so essential. The extra open communication there may be, the extra probably the remedy is to be adopted, yield higher well being outcomes, and construct extra belief between each events. I feel this message interprets throughout the board to firms supporting insulin therapies as nicely. Each affected person is exclusive and totally different therapies are higher suited to totally different sufferers. It’s essential to Bigfoot’s mission that we hearken to affected person and supplier suggestions about our applied sciences to make sure we meet a variety of wants for individuals with insulin-requiring diabetes.
Affected person training must be a precedence
A presentation I attended at AACE highlighted the obstacles sufferers with diabetes face—one which caught with me was lack of affected person training. This downside isn’t particular to the diabetes house, it’s evident throughout numerous illness states. If individuals with diabetes don’t perceive the illness, the results it has on their physique, and the therapies which can be accessible, they might not have the ability to handle their well being successfully. It serves as a pleasant reminder that diabetes remedy suppliers should take time to coach their sufferers to cut back these obstacles, and the extra firms can fill the hole, the higher we are able to help individuals with diabetes.
Missed insulin dosing is frequent
The ADA presentation1, which included reviewing obstacles to optimum diabetes management, mentioned the impression on missed and mistimed insulin doses2
● 10-59% of kind 1 sufferers report lacking at the least 1 bolus per week.
● 10-30% of kind 1 sufferers report lacking at the least 1 basal dose per 30 days.
● 1-30% of kind 2 sufferers report lacking at the least 1 basal dose per 30 days.
Based mostly on these statistics, it’s evident sufferers want a system to assist keep in mind to take their insulin and techniques to share CGM information with physicians to allow them to learn when following-up with their sufferers. Actual information that guides adjusting insulin doses and offering verbal reminders are each avenues that may assist set sufferers up for fulfillment in managing glycemic management. Using superior applied sciences holds the potential to be an efficient manner to assist remind individuals to take their drugs. Most significantly, these applied sciences may also help impression well being, as missed and mistimed doses have proven to impression A1C, ‘calculations confirmed that forgetting 2 meal-related injections per week would result in a rise in A1C of at the least 0.3-0.4% factors, and equally forgotten lengthy appearing missed doses to a rise of 0.2-0.3% factors3.
Conferences function a possibility to find out about numerous diabetes matters, and it’s been a pleasure to attend ATTD, AACE, ADA, and ENDO to be taught from a few of the biggest thought leaders in our house. I do know our workforce will take the teachings discovered and key takeaways from these conferences and use them to higher help our mission of releasing individuals with insulin-requiring diabetes to reside the lives they select.
1. ADA 2022 Presentation: 3-CT-SY-15 Linked-Insulin Pen Programs Present Vital Information to Information Efficient Insulin Remedy- Medical Trial and Actual-World Proof, in Sort 1 and Sort 2 Diabetes, Dr. Viral Shah.
2. Susan Robinson, Rachel S. Newson, Birong Liao, Tessa Kennedy-Martin, and Tadej Battelino.Diabetes Expertise & Therapeutics.Dec 2021.844-856.http://doi.org/10.1089/dia.2021.0164
3. Randlov, Jette & Poulsen, Jens. (2008). How A lot Do Forgotten Insulin Injections Matter to Hemoglobin A1c in Folks with Diabetes? A Simulation Research. Journal of diabetes science and know-how. 2. 229-35. 10.1177/193229680800200209.