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Latest CGMs Articles
Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) Article Archives
February 2013
Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. has teamed with Dexcom to expand an existing partnership to include development of Dexcom’s latest continuous glucose monitoring system, the G4 Platinum. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the new CGM in October.
0 comments - Posted Feb 17, 2013
November 2012
The FDA has approved U.S. sales of Dexcom's G4TM PLATINUM continuous glucose monitor. The San Diego-based manufacturer said it is taking orders and plans to begin shipping the device to patients within the next few weeks.
0 comments - Posted Nov 16, 2012
October 2012
As a little girl, I was scared at night that something evil might be under the bed. If I had to get up to go to the bathroom, I made sure to leap as far away from the bed as possible. As an adult, I'm still afraid that something will get me at night, but it's no longer a monster: It's the life-saving insulin that I take.
0 comments - Posted Oct 28, 2012
September 2012
To a casual observer, Dr. Nat Strand might look like an over-achiever. After all, she and her partner won Season 17 of her favorite television show, "The Amazing Race." Winning the race opened her world up to the diabetes community, which, interestingly enough, inspired her to take better care of herself. Her mission now is to encourage everyone with diabetes to connect with the diabetes community and benefit from knowing others who understand the daily challenges of managing type 1 diabetes. When I caught up with Dr. Strand, we began by talking about what drove her to enter the Amazing Race.
0 comments - Posted Sep 5, 2012
September 2011
Being a rookie driver on the fast-paced IndyCar racing circuit is pressure enough for any 26-year-old. But for Charlie Kimball, one of four wheel men on businessman Chip Ganassi's IndyCar race team, there's the added need to manage type 1 diabetes while roaring around the track at speeds that often exceed 200 miles per hour.
0 comments - Posted Sep 25, 2011
Here's the scenario: You're a famed prosecutor who happens to be on an insulin pump. One of the criminals you put away years ago has been released from prison, and he's eager for revenge. This is a particularly cunning criminal, so he hatches a subtle plan. He hacks into your insulin pump, giving you a massive dose of insulin without warning. As you drive to work one day, you begin to feel woozy. That's odd, you think, looking down to where the pump attaches to your stomach. I just ate....
0 comments - Posted Sep 10, 2011
Abbott Diabetes Care is discontinuing its FreeStyle Navigator System, a continuous glucose monitoring device, in the United States. Abbott blamed supply problems that have prevented the company from selling new units or replacing parts under warranty.
0 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2011
July 2011
How many times has this happened to you? You're driving somewhere and something feels off. You suspect that your blood sugar level may be dropping, but you plow ahead. Now, imagine your car sounding the alarm: "Attention: This is your car speaking. Your blood sugar is low. Pull over and eat a snack."
0 comments - Posted Jul 30, 2011
May 2011
Dr. Jonathan Beach is a 35-year-old emergency medicine physician who has had type 1 diabetes for 31 years. He owns and operates Urgicare, a wellness center that includes The Northeast Center for Diabetes Care and Education in Plattsburgh, New York, an isolated rural community that has few other resources for diabetes. This is his story of his life with diabetes and his professional experience with the insulin pump.
0 comments - Posted May 12, 2011
April 2011
Medtronic, Inc., says that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the marketing of the company's CareLink® Personal 5.4 Therapy Management Software for the Mac OS platform.
0 comments - Posted Apr 21, 2011
January 2011
Developing a noninvasive, wireless, transdermal continuous glucose monitor requires brilliance, commitment, innovation, and....a LOT of money. We recently reported that Echo Therapeutics, Inc. is developing just such a CGM, called the Symphony, along with its companion skin preparation system. Fortunately, their money picture is looking bright: Echo just raised approximately $2.5 million through "a series of private placements of the Company's stock and warrants, and it has received a binding commitment for an additional $3 million."
0 comments - Posted Jan 25, 2011
November 2010
The competition for a continuous glucose monitoring system that can replace the classic finger prick blood tests for diabetes is heating up. Several new products have come to the market this year that use various techniques to test blood glucose levels continuously without the need for a blood test, but several have faltered with complaints of inaccurate readings and skin irritation.
0 comments - Posted Nov 29, 2010
October 2010
Tarra Robinson was afraid that she was going to lose her job. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 18 months old, Tarra had recently developed hypoglycemic unawareness, which affects about 17% of type 1 diabetics. Tarra was passing out at work, and once she even crashed her car when her blood sugar dropped unexpectedly. She went on a pump and tried a CGM, but nothing seemed to help. She was still having frequent, dangerous lows.
0 comments - Posted Oct 28, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, FL - October 13, 2010 - The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) today published a consensus statement for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) online, and will be published in the next issue of the association's official medical journal Endocrine Practice.
0 comments - Posted Oct 14, 2010
September 2010
The Holy Grail pursued by all diabetes researchers is a complete cure for both the type 1 and type 2 forms of the disease. But until then, the "artificial pancreas," a combination of glucose monitoring and insulin dosing technology, may be as close as they get to a final breakthrough in treating diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 3, 2010
July 2010
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego and GlySens Incorporated have developed an implantable glucose sensor and wireless telemetry system that continuously monitors tissue glucose and transmits the information to an external receiver. The paper, published in the July 28, 2010 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, describes the use of this glucose-sensing device as an implant in animals for over one year. After human clinical trials and FDA approval, the device may be useful to people with diabetes as an alternative to finger sticking, and to short-term needle-like glucose sensors that have to be replaced every three to seven days.
0 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2010
A massive study involving 485 people with type 1 diabetes at 30 locations across North America shows that the combination of an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor helps patients achieve significantly lower A1c levels than multiple daily insulin injections.
0 comments - Posted Jul 13, 2010
May 2010
Tattoos aren't just an art form or a way of making a personal statement anymore: They are beginning to save lives.
0 comments - Posted May 20, 2010
Over 80 years ago, famed diabetologist Elliot Joslin said about the treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes: "Ketoacidosis may kill a patient, but frequent hypoglycemic reactions will ruin him." Unfortunately, hypoglycemia continues to be the most difficult problem facing most patients, families, and caregivers who deal with the management of type 1 diabetes on a daily basis. Frequent hypoglycemia episodes not only can "ruin," or adversely impact the quality of life for patients, but also, when severe, can cause seizures, coma, and even death.
0 comments - Posted May 13, 2010
March 2010
MINNEAPOLIS - March 17, 2010 - Medtronic, Inc. today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time RevelTM System, the next generation of the industry's only integrated diabetes management system (insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and diabetes therapy management software). The system incorporates new innovative CGM features including predictive alerts that can give early warning to people with diabetes so they can take action to prevent dangerous high or low glucose events.
0 comments - Posted Mar 22, 2010
September 2009
For a while now, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has been conducting clinical trials on the effectiveness of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people with type 1 diabetes. Last year, they issued their first two reports on their findings, showing that CGMs can improve control even for people who already have A1c's below 7%. That information has already had a powerful impact: It's convinced a number of large health insurers (including Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, United Healthcare, and Wellpoint) to cover CGMs for type 1s, and it's led to the inclusion of CGMs in national standards of care for type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 17, 2009
August 2009
In our last issue, we published a letter from reader Sheila Payne, who wrote that we had been far too positive about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in our June/July article Get the Facts on Continuous Glucose Monitoring. But her opinion provoked a stack of letters from people who believe that the benefits of CGM substantially outweigh its negatives. To let you in on the debate, we are reprinting Ms. Payne's thought-provoking letter here, followed by two equally thoughtful responses from readers.
0 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2009
Initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Rob subsequently discovered that he had type 1. Knowing that he needed to exercise more, he returned to professional surfing. Today, he is a sponsored professional athlete who uses a CGM.
0 comments - Posted Aug 7, 2009
June 2009
Until now, care for insulin-dependent diabetes has focused on the delivery of insulin combined with frequent blood glucose (BG) testing. Keeping your A1c down is, and always will be, the name of the game. But numerous studies have shown us in the last few years that having access to continuous glucose data has a huge impact. How you deliver the insulin doesn't necessarily matter-you can use a pump, a syringe, or an insulin pen, it's knowing your personal BG trends that makes all the difference.
0 comments - Posted Jun 29, 2009
February 2009
Baxter International, Inc., which produces the peritoneal dialysis solution Extraneal (icodextrin), has teamed with MedicAlert Foundation International to encourage peritoneal dialysis patients to add a warning to their MedicAlert bracelets regarding the fact that icodextrin may cause false readings on non-specific glucose monitors.
0 comments - Posted Feb 5, 2009
September 2008
A study sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation confirms that many older type 1 patients achieve better control of their blood sugar levels by using a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) than by conventional monitoring with a meter and finger pricks.
0 comments - Posted Sep 11, 2008
When Gina Capone, a thirty-something type 1 for eight years, got married this year, she and her husband decided it was time to start thinking about having a baby. Like all women with diabetes who are planning a pregnancy, Gina needs her A1c to be as low as possible in order to prevent complications for her and her baby. This strict control can be very challenging and time-consuming, requiring up to 20 blood sugar tests a day.
0 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2008
August 2008
When the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) hosted its convention June 30 through July 5 in Dallas, Texas, it awarded the Access Plus (A+) Award to Diagnostic Devices, Inc., makers of Prodigy® blood glucose monitoring systems. “The A+ Award program was designed to reward companies that make consumer products that are truly accessible for blind people,” said Eileen Rivera Ley, Director of Diabetes Initiatives for the NFB. The A+ Award is for products that afford the blind the same convenience and features available to everyone else and is awarded only to products and services that meet the highest standards of accessibility.
0 comments - Posted Aug 5, 2008
July 2008
If you are a New Yorker and have been denied CGMS coverage by insurance or would like coverage for a continuous glucose monitoring system, Gina Capone, founder of Diabetes TalkFest, wants you to Raise your Voice.
0 comments - Posted Jul 25, 2008
What follows is Medtronic's response to Zachariah Kramer's letter to Diabetes Health cautioning against unrealistic expectations about CGM systems.
0 comments - Posted Jul 16, 2008
What follows is DexCom's response to Zachariah Kramer's letter to Diabetes Health cautioning against unrealistic expectations about CGMS.
0 comments - Posted Jul 16, 2008
VALLEY STREAM, NY: July 2, 2008 -- On Tuesday, July 1 online community Diabetes Talkfest sponsored the first CGMS Denial Day online rally highlighting the excessively high rate of denials issued by insurance companies for continuous glucose monitors. CGMS have been proven to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar levels, and quality of life. The event was held in association with social network site Tudiabetes.com.
0 comments - Posted Jul 3, 2008
I’ve always been a pretty good traveler. I simply checked the weather at my destination and packed accordingly. Easy. Then I learned that I had diabetes, and suddenly even weekend trips required an intense amount of additional preparation.
0 comments - Posted Jul 3, 2008
April 2008
The FDA has cleared the OneTouch UltraLink wireless meter as the only meter certified by Medtronic to wirelessly communicate with its diabetes management products in the United States. The meter uses Medtronic-certified wireless technology to transmit glucose readings directly to MiniMed Paradigm insulin pumps and the Guardian® REAL-Time continuous glucose monitoring system. This makes bolus dosing more accurate and easier for patients compared to the manual entry of blood glucose readings.
0 comments - Posted Apr 28, 2008
A Question-and-Answer Session With Jordan Hoese, A 14-Year-Old Type 1 Marathon Runner.
0 comments - Posted Apr 21, 2008
Tim’s Parker’s 15 minutes of fame – at least in the diabetes community – began in March when he learned that he had been the purchaser of Medtronic’s one millionth continuous glucose monitoring sensor.
0 comments - Posted Apr 16, 2008
Hello to all of you hardworking diabetes educators. We have some exciting news from California! It's about the first case of a health insurance company paying for a patient's continuous glucose monitor, as well as the ongoing monthly supplies. It's also the story of a mother-and-daughter team that had the courage to blaze a new trail for us all. These two women, Laura and Gillian Miller, truly went where no man has gone before! That's why Diabetes Health Professional is honored to tell their story, which you can read on page 27.
0 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2008
March 2008
Fifteen-year-old Californian Laura Miller, a brittle diabetic, and her mother, Gillian, thought they had a strong case when they asked Blue Cross in late 2007 to pay for a continuous glucose monitor for her.
0 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2008
Blood sugar control is the heart and soul of diabetes management. How you handle it determines what will be the consequences of your diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 13, 2008
February 2008
A Texas endocrinologist who recently put the recently FDA-approved Medtronic iPro continuous glucose recorder through its paces with diabetic patients calls the tool a major step forward in doctors' ability to accurately monitor the disease.
0 comments - Posted Feb 18, 2008
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the newest continuous glucose monitoring system from diabetes management device manufacturer Medtronic.
0 comments - Posted Feb 15, 2008
The FDA is currently reviewing a continuous glucose monitoring system from Abbott, the "FreeStyle Navigator." The CGM device, if approved, will join the CGM systems currently offered by Medtronic and Dexcom.
0 comments - Posted Feb 11, 2008
Dear Diabetes Health, after seeing your Web TV show where Scott King went on the Dexcom device for the first time, I have several questions.
0 comments - Posted Feb 3, 2008
December 2007
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved new Healthcare Common Procedural Coding System (HCPCS, known as "hickpicks") codes for continuous glucose monitoring.
0 comments - Posted Dec 12, 2007
November 2007
Over the course of the year, we meticulously update all our charts to bring you the most accurate information about hundreds of products, services, and medications. Now we've gathered every one of those charts, from humble lancets to sophisticated continuous glucose monitors, into one handy place.
0 comments - Posted Nov 26, 2007
September 2007
As a scientist who has type 1 diabetes, Dr. Kowalski knows that the cure may be a long time coming. But he's optimistic, nevertheless, because he believes that technology will revolutionize diabetes management long before the cure raises its shy little head.
0 comments - Posted Sep 18, 2007
Life in the trenches with type 1 diabetes is challenging. Unpredictable blood sugars can leave a person with diabetes (PWD) feeling frustrated and helpless. The acute toxic effects of abnormal blood sugars also contribute to depression, anxiety, irritability, and food cravings.
0 comments - Posted Sep 9, 2007
July 2007
Across the Atlantic ocean, Abbott has received European CE Mark (Conformite Europeene) approval for the FreeStyle Navigator® Continuous Glucose Monitoring System for people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 8, 2007
June 2007
Soon you will be able to keep your DexCom sensor in place for a whole week instead of just three days. We know you've been doing that already, but now you'll have the full approval of the authorities.
0 comments - Posted Jun 23, 2007
May 2007
Meters have come a long way since 1969, when the first meter went on the market. The meter measured the amount of light reflected off a Dextrostix, a paper strip that turned various shades of blue, depending on blood glucose level, after a large drop of blood was placed on it and then washed off.
0 comments - Posted May 24, 2007
Continuous Glucose Monitors Are Revolutionary - I’ve always believed that if I could give myself insulin conveniently and constantly knew my blood glucose, I could control my blood sugar almost as well as a non-diabetic person. Nine years ago, an insulin pump made the first condition come true. Since then I have been waiting for the magic blood sugar machine.
0 comments - Posted May 10, 2007
April 2007
GlucoLight's continuous, non-invasive device is a novel approach to glucose monitoring in the acute care environment. Using optical coherence tomography (OCT), the device is able to measure blood glucose levels through a unique anatomical area in the skin that shows physiological changes that directly correlate to changes in blood glucose. The GlucoLight monitor displays real time glucose measurements with an initial single point calibration.
0 comments - Posted Apr 18, 2007
March 2007
Medtronic has received FDA approval for pediatric models of both of its REAL-Time continuous glucose monitors, the MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time System and the Guardian REAL-Time System. Previously approved only for adults, both pediatric models will be appropriate for kids ages 7-17.
0 comments - Posted Mar 29, 2007
February 2007
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11 months old, and I have struggled for almost 46 years to keep control of it. With diabetes, you never get a break.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Medtronic MiniMed’s Guardian RT is being called a “useful and important diagnostic tool for a phenomenon known as nighttime ‘late-onset hypoglycemia’.”
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
September 2006
Everyone with diabetes can agree on one thing: Life needs to be a whole lot easier. To find that ease, we support research funding, we fight for access and we push for innovation.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
August 2006
For many years, we have been told that an artificial pancreas is several years away. After the May 16 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Artificial Pancreas Forum, that message hasn’t changed.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
May 2006
The continuous glucose sensors of today that will in time lead to development of an artificial pancreas are getting a tremendous boost from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF). The boost is the organization’s commitment of up to $6.5 million dollars this year and next.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
April 2006
Abbott Diabetes Care is already looking beyond continuous sensing. More than two years ago it asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve its FreeStyle Navigator Continuous Glucose Monitor; that application is still pending.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
April 2005
In February 2005, Insulet Corporation of Bedford, Massachusetts, announced that its OmniPod Insulin Management System received FDA approval.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
When we think about Medtronic MiniMed, insulin pumps usually come to mind. That makes sense, because MiniMed was among the first to market an insulin pump and today dominates the U.S. market with more than a 70 percent share.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
September 2004
The following are summaries of studies presented at the June 2004 ADA Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida:
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2004
April 2004
The race is on! Since 1986, the contestants—more than 100 start-up biotech companies—have been competing for the prize: a chunk of the billion-dollar market that awaits the manufacturer of a reliable, FDA-approved, noninvasive glucose monitor.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
March 2004
Medtronic MiniMed’s Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) improved kids' control by providing them with accurate data—for adjustment of insulin treatments—and by promoting better communication and motivation.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
January 2003
If you test your blood glucose regularly, you probably think you have a pretty good idea of how high or low your numbers rise and fall during a typical day and night. However, what if you had 288 blood-glucose readings every 24 hours, instead of only a handful?
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
September 2002
Researchers in Chicago, Illinois, using the Medtronic MiniMed Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) conclude that the variable glucose profiles generated during endurance competitions such as marathons "indicate the need for intensive and accurate glucose monitoring."
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
Researchers in Chicago, Illinois, using the Medtronic MiniMed Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) conclude that the variable glucose profiles generated during endurance competitions such as marathons "indicate the need for intensive and accurate glucose monitoring."
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
April 2002
Researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology have been awarded a $75,000 grant to begin developing a noninvasive device for measuring blood glucose from the eye, as part of a system that could simulate pancreatic function.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
March 2002
It's not exactly the tortoise versus the hare, but in the effort to get islet transplantation and a closed-loop artificial pancreas to the market, there seems to be a race.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
January 2002
Another study is suggesting that continuous glucose monitoring could be a superior testing method for determining optimal control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
November 2001
On August 1, pump maker Animas Corporation received the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) award for its long-term implantable optical blood glucose monitor.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
July 2001
On May 30, medical-devices maker Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis agreed to buy insulin-pump maker MiniMed Inc. and Medical Research Group Inc.—a firm partly owned by MiniMed—for $3.7 billion.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
June 2001
For many parents, the most troubling aspect of diabetes is the possibility of low blood sugars during the night. We have recently tested two new products that are providing solutions to this problem.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Many new technologies have recently become available to help manage type 1 diabetes. Among these, insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors are proving to have great benefit, even in young children.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Infusing insulin on a continuous basis has been shown to help control sugar levels and hypoglycemia in children and adolescents.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Six things to consider if you are thinking of putting your diabetic child on an insulin pump:
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
January 2001
On November 13, 2000, it was announced that surgeons in Montpellier, France, implanted the world's first internal artificial pancreas in a person with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
September 2000
Parents who are concerned about the insulin pump's relative complexity but relish the possibilities of the increased control it can offer children may finally have the solution to their problem. A recent study suggests that part-time pumping can offer improved control for younger children without requiring them to operate the pump on their own.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
May 1999
Each day thousands of people head to the airport to fly off on a journey. If you wear an insulin pump, making it through airport security gates may be a journey of its own.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
February 1993
New developments in materials, bio-engineering techniques and other disciplines have recently taken the concept of artificial organs from fantasy to reality. EU 346 PANART-Artificial Pancreas, for example, aims to develop an implanted artificial insulin delivery system, which promises to give diabetes sufferers a more normal and healthy lifestyle.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1993