Obviously this doesn’t yet get the product directly in patients’ hands, but I personally am planning to ask my endo whether he might start ordering the pods after they become commercially available. I probably can convince him that I can apply them myself (have been doing it for about half a year now with “imported” Libre sensors from Europe) and while I don’t mind seeing what the professional “Ambulatory Glucose Profile” shows, I also plan to do my own “flashing” via my open-source app as before.
And hopefully this approval spells good things for a faster track for the patient-focused version as well!
I’m sure there are segments of the diabetes population, along with their doctors, who will find this helpful. I’m not interested in any blind CGM sessions. I get real-world value out the immediate feedback that a CGM can give me. I’m wondering how valuable this will be to the clinician and his/her patient.
No reader, by choice – I don’t want to carry any extra pieces if I can avoid it. There are a couple of free apps available for Android-based phones one can do this with. My personal experience is with Glimp. (Details here: FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System - #25 by Dessito)
Agreed in principle, but as I describe for those of us who want the instant info, there are options to get it.
The more general usefulness of the PRO (blinded to the patient) version is for the vast majority of both T1 and T2 patients who do not wear a CGM. I am sure that a good endo or CDE would be able to identify patterns and suggest improvements in insulin regimens. Compare this with the current picture for such people – arbitrarily timed fingerstick BG test results (and in many cases, not that numerous). I think our impression of what the “typical” person with diabetes does is skewed by interactions with the very highly motivated people on this and other DOC forums, many of whom practice intense self-management.
About 20 years ago, Medtronic produced a blinded to the patient CGM. It was called the Guardian. My doctor recommended that I give it a try. I wore it for three days and then went back to the clinic and unit was uploaded to a desk-top PC. I didn’t get any useful lessons from that session. What I saw were highly variable traces of my BGs. What was missing was insulin dosing, food, and exercise – crucial context info that the Guardian had no idea about. Since this was so long ago, I’m sure that the ability to read blood sugar graphs has improved.
You’re right, though. This tech, while not interesting to someone who has worn a CGM continuously for seven years, could help many but in a limited way. The benefit of watching your own blood glucose levels over longer periods of time is a real game changer to anyone with curiosity and motivation.
I’ve been using the Libre and reader for 4 months now (in Australia), and I seriously can’t understand why companies are still blinding patients to their own levels! So rude and condescending!
If they are not considered accurate enough for a patient to see, then what is the point? PWD who do not routinely change doses based on BSLs, are not suddenly going to go beserk and randomly change pump settings or basal bolus numbers. People who do change stuff themselves need to actually see the levels.
I am deeply in love with my sensors and reader. For me, it is the perfect balance of information without nagging. I have not been able to use Medtronic CGMS consistently because I get so furious with the nagging alarms (and yes, I have turned them off, but the low glucose alarm is on always).
I very much prefer being trusted to deal with things myself, after managing my own D since middle childhood.
Just got the good news from my insurance that they will cover my Freestyle Libre, albeit for 6 months only at this time.
I consider that good news. Whilst it’s for sale here in Switzerland, it’s not on the official list of recognized medical appliances yet (LIMA as it’s called here), so it’s up to the insurance to decide. My endo had to make the request on my behalf and he pointed out that in terms of cost it was very similar to the cost of test strips.
The insurance company responded surprisingly quickly and so I suspect I wasn’t the first to make the request.
