Preferences for glucose monitoring devices - research study

etassie said:

Hi everyone, I am conducting a research study to understand the opinions and preferences of people in the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) for glucose monitoring devices. I would really appreciate your input into these discussions which will highlight what is important to people in DOC with managing diabetes. More information about the study can be found at:
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/researchproject/glucose-monitoring-devices3/

Please note as this is a research study, your responses to this thread until the 20th of December may be used in a research study. You can choose to opt out of this study until the 23rd of December. If you wish to do so, please click on the link above, fill in the participant opt out form and return it to Emma Tassie by email (emma.tassie@abdn.ac.uk).

Thanks to all who have taken part so far You are welcome to join at any time, if you have missed a day and would like to discuss those questions please feel free to do so.

On day 1 we would like to speak about day to day life of managing diabetes and technology.

1. Can you tell me about what best helps you manage your diabetes and what parts of diabetes management you find most difficult?
FSL and pump are my best tools after 38 years with t1D.
Most difficult is computing all the variables that my body used to do automatically in order to calculate the timing of a dose (this is impossible btw).
2. What types of diabetes technology have you tried?
FSL
Pump

3. Are you eager to try new diabetes technology when it is newly available?
Would love to get my hands on the new tandem/dexcom device which as just been approved because it tackles my diabetes landmine (spiking blood sugars that I fail to anticipate and struggle to bring down)


On day 2 we would like to know about your experiences of finger prick testing

4. What do you like and dislike about finger prick testing?
Fiddly and difficult when on the move or have cold fingers! Leaky fingers and the anti socialness of pricking in public.

5. How many times do you (did you) finger prick test per day? 2-4 times when I did it and that was a good day...

6. What are/were the biggest barriers to finger prick testing for you?
My meter running out of charge and the sheer inconvenience of testing.

On day 3 we would like to know about your experiences of flash glucose monitoring (Libre). Today's questions are:

7. What do you like and dislike about flash glucose monitors?
Like the ease of testing and the time in rang stats are revealing
Dislike the stark proof that I am getting it wrong quite a lot and find scanning my arm with a mobile phone tricksy.

8. Do you find (or think) the flash glucose monitor is useful for day to day diabetes management?
Yes NO brainer.

9. Do you (or think you might) use this information to adjust your insulin regimen?
Yes. I have a pump and use it to adjust the basal rate in particular and to engage in new diabetes helpful habits such as testing pre meal and getting ahead of a spike with a timely dose of insulin.

Today is day 4 and it's the second last day, today we would like to know about your experiences and opinions of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). Here are today's questions:

10. What do you like and dislike about CGMs? I have not used CGM

11. Do you find (or think) the CGM is useful for day to day diabetes management? Yes

12. Do you (or think you might) use this information to make more adjustments to your insulin regimen? Yes as per FSL


Today is the last day I’ll be posting questions to the thread – thank you so much to everyone for taking part! Let’s finish it off by discussing what would be your ideal glucose monitoring system. Here are todays questions:

13. If you could choose any of the glucose monitoring devices available, what would you choose and why?
Tandem basal IQ plus Dexcom as it is the only closed loop system that corrects highs and lows to my knowledge

14. Do you think this glucose device could help you more effectively manage your diabetes, and why? Yes - I think it would take out the human error factor in consistently correcting basal and bolus doses in a timely manner.

15. What are the most important features of a glucose monitoring system to you?
Safety
Intuitive design and feedback
Discrete size and robustness


Edited by Mod to confirm this has been approved.

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