Home Blood Glucose Monitoring and Digital-Health in Diabetes
Farmer A., Pal K.
Diabetes is a disorder of glucose metabolism and a major cause of death and disability. It currently affects 387 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 592 million by 2035. Monitoring of glucose levels is an essential component of treatment - providing feedback to clinician and patient on management through lifestyle and pharmacotherapy. This chapter provides an overview of the evidence that monitoring levels of glycaemia leads to improved outcomes for diabetes; a brief history of the technologies used for monitoring; and an update on recent research into ways in which people can be supported with use of their medication. Clinical support systems are now available and have been refined to improve their effectiveness, and combined with systems that enable personal support for self-monitoring can help make better use of the data available. The chapter includes a brief overview of recent developments with continuous glucose monitoring, flash monitoring and closed loop systems.