FreeStyle Libre 3 Cleared in Europe – Smaller, Thinner, and No More Scanning was reported by Matthew Garza and Katie Mahoney on diaTribe.org, 29 September 2020.
This third-generation continuous glucose monitor (CGM) has many of the same features that make the FreeStyle Libre 2 so popular, including optional alarms, 14-day wear, and high accuracy. The FreeStyle Libre 3 also adds several new features:
- Real-time, minute-by-minute readings are sent directly to the FreeStyle Libre 3 app via Bluetooth – moving this CGM from “on-demand” to “always-on,” so there is no need to scan the sensor every eight hours.
- It is 70% smaller than previous models, making it the “smallest and thinnest” CGM sensor yet – it’s said to be about the size of two stacked pennies.
- It is cleared for use in gestational diabetes and pregnant women with type 1 diabetes. We suggest that
- It is cleared as an iCGM, meaning it can be used for automated insulin delivery (AID) development in Europe.
- The new FreeStyle Libre 3 app, available for both iOS and Android devices, will contain many of the same features as the FreeStyle Libre 2 app (Libre View).
Read more: FreeStyle Libre 3 Cleared in Europe – Smaller, Thinner, and No More Scanning
Highlights from EASD 2020 was posted on diaTribe.org, 29 September 2020. EASD is the European Association for the Study of Diabetes … their virtual 2020 Conference was held last week.
Most notable and obvious: Data shows just how much CGM can benefit all people with diabetes!
For all the updates: Highlights from EASD 2020
Eversense Implantable CGM Back in Business, Thanks to Ascensia was reported by Mike Hoskins for DiabetesMine.com, 28 September 2020.
Eversense, the first-ever implantable continuous glucose monitor (CGM), is making a comeback — after its manufacturer, Senseonics, nearly went belly-up due to the COVID-19 crisis — thanks to a massive cash infusion from pharma giant Ascensia Diabetes Care.
Senseonics was forced to halt sales of this unique diabetes tool in late March, going into “hibernation mode” as it awaited investment or an appropriate partnership, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francine Kaufman. That saving grace has now arrived in the form of a commercialization and collaboration agreement with Ascensia, the Switzerland-based fingerstick glucose meter manufacturer formerly known as Bayer. The agreement grants Ascensia exclusive global distribution rights for current and future Eversense CGM products for at least the next 5 years.
The current Eversense sensor is approved for only 3 months’ use, which many believe is too short a period for something that requires a surgical skin incision. But Maryland-based Senseonics is expected to file its highly anticipated 6-months’ wear version with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “very soon,” so Ascensia is well poised to compete in the CGM market.
Read more: Eversense Implantable CGM Back in Business, Thanks to Ascensia
Changing Lancets for Diabetes Fingerstick Checks was posted by the DiabetesMine Team, 25 September 2020. Nope, this is not a joke but a serious post!
How often do you change your lancet for a fingerstick blood sugar test? Responses to that question vary greatly, depending on who’s being asked.
Most medical professionals and experts insist that lancets (the little needles in glucose testing kits) should be changed after each finger poke. That is what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) literature says, and what those teaching diabetes care are supposed to emphasize.
But the reality is very different for most people with diabetes (PWDs) — especially us long-timers who’ve been sticking our fingertips since the early days of home glucose monitoring in the 1970s and 80s. Many respond to this recommendation with eye rolls and dark humor: Who actually changes lancets? Aren’t they supposed to be blunt?
Dr. Karen Cullen, a registered dietician and diabetes care and education specialist (DCES) at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, says there really isn’t any evidence that reusing lancets on a daily basis causes any higher level of infection of any kind. “As long as fingers are clean when poking, changing the lancet is really more about comfort,” says Jane Dickinson, a DCES and director of the Master of Science Program in Diabetes Education and Management at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York; she also lives with type 1 diabetes herself. “A lancet will get duller with each use and, after a while, it hurts and isn’t as effective at drawing blood.”
A few years back, some folks in the online patient community even created a faux rock band called BlüntLancet to poke fun at this issue.
Read more: Changing Lancets for Diabetes Fingerstick Checks
Dr. Steve Edelman, T1D for over 50 years, endocrinologist, founder of TCOYD and DIY Looper, held his ONE Virtual 2020 Conference on Saturday, 3 October 2020.
If you missed it, you can still access many of the excellent videos through 1 November 2020, by registering here: https://tcoyd.org/one-2020/
AND … if you’d like to hear him LIVE, along with Dr. Rayhan Lal, also a T1D, endocrinologst at Stanford University and also a DIY Looper (but in reality he tries it all and is knowledgeable about all therapies) will be joining Facebook group, So Cal Loopers on Monday, 12 October 2020 at 5pm PDT.
Please join So Cal Loopers (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SoCalLoopers/) to watch the livestream or access the Zoom link … or watch the video later on our YouTube channel, So Cal Loopers (Youtube So Cal Loopers)
And finally … here are 2 great videos of Dr. Steve Edelman and Dr. Jeremy Pettus (also T1D and endocrinologist) on 10 important tips and tricks of living with Type 1 diabetes.
i hope the Librea continues to make strides in accuracy and usefulness. Each person I know who has had used Eversense has loved it. Lancet’s? yeah I change every time. I think it might have been the Tetanus, that required the removal of my ,,, or no I have never had Tetanus. but those pesky lancets. 🙂