Smart pens/integration with continuous glucose monitoring

Abstract

Smart insulin pens and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) play a crucial role in the management of diabetes mellitus (DM) by providing these patients and their healthcare teams with detailed insight into dosing behaviors and their impact on glycemic outcomes.

These connected devices allow:

• Automatically tracking and recording the time and amount of each insulin dose, helping to identify patterns and errors in dosing, such as missed or poorly timed doses.
• Integrating CGM data to provide a complete picture of real-time blood glucose levels, allowing for precise adjustments in insulin doses.
• Facilitating communication between the patient and the healthcare team, as data can be shared and jointly analyzed, leading to more effective counseling strategies.
• Reduce the burden of DM management by offering dose reminders, missed dose alerts, and dose recommendations based on smart algorithms.
• Improve glycemic control by promoting more frequent and accurate dosing, which has been associated with better glycemic management, especially when the frequency of correction doses is high.

Real-world studies showed that a dosing frequency of at least 3 doses per day and a missed dose rate of less than 20% were associated with improved glycemia in the general population and in adults with DM. The analysis also showed that the frequency of correction doses is positively correlated with time in range (TIR), a key indicator of glycemic control.

These two devices combined support informed decision making, promote treatment adherence, and can lead to better DM management by providing a personalized, accurate, and cost-effective approach to insulin management.