In the News... Medicare CGM changes, new rules for CGM in sports, and more!

It's "In the News..." your weekly wrap up of diabetes news and headlines. This week:

Medicare move on CGM testing requirements

New study on Eversense, implantable CGM

One sport changes its rules for BG monitoring

Diabetes when deaf - new research to help

Women leadership gap in diabetes

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Episode Transcription below: 

 

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m so glad you’re here! I’m Stacey Simms and each week I’ll share the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. Whether you’re joining me live on Facebook or watching or listening after, I’m here to get you up to speed quickly on what’s happening with diabetes technology, research, and our community. Remember, these are headlines and summaries – so to learn more, I will put all of the sources and links in the Facebook comments and in the show notes at d-c dot com.
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In the News is brought to you by Inside the Breakthrough. A new history of science podcast full of “Did You Know Stuff”
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here’s what’s In The News this week…
Medicare does away with a big barrier to CGM use: you no longer have to show you’re testing four times a day. Dexcom’s G6 has been FDA approved for insulin dosing without fingerstick calibration and, along with the American Diabetes Association and other groups, has been pushing for this change for a long time. It becomes official on July 18th.
https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/lcd-details.aspx?lcdid=33822&ver=31&fbclid=IwAR1jiXFTy3LqdEoSnkGncAkNKpCSVzINPo-q3KZa4DGMgJiKi7pDgEr0eoI
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New study all about Eversense – this is the first and only long-term, implantable CGM. The PROMISE study looked at the accuracy and safety of their 180 day system with reduced calibrations. The MARD – which measures accuracy – was 8.5 to 9.1 which puts it in line with other CGMs available right now. The rest of the study showed it safe and effective. In October 2020, Senseonics asked the FDA to approve the 180-day wear version, and that submission remains. They are also working on a year-long version of this system.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210603005866/en/Senseonics-Announces-Results-of-the-PROMISE-Study-Demonstrating-Strong-Accuracy-of-180-Day-CGM-Sensor

Really interesting story out of cycling this week. The UCI - the Union Cycliste Internationale - is the worldwide governing body. They changed a few rules recently, including one banning the in-competition use of devices that capture information on metabolic values including, but not limited to glucose. Elite athletes and a lot of influencers are starting to wear CGMs even without diabetes
– one company “Super-sapiens” promises easier energy management for athletes by doing so. Super-sapiens is the basically Abbot Libre with different marketing. They’ve been expanding the number of professional cycling teams they’re working with but this ruling may change that.
People with diabetes – who use CGM for medical reasons – are exempt from the rule change. By the way, in the opposite direction, the Ironman triathlon, has Supersapiens as an official supplier. We are just at the start of this kind of thing – it will be very interesting to watch.
https://road.cc/content/tech-news/uci-bans-blood-glucose-monitoring-devices-races-283891
mental health:
https://www.endocrinologyadvisor.com/home/topics/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/psychoeducational-program-minds-ohp-welcomed-by-adults-with-t1d/
Great article from Beyond Type 1… looking at health care disparities – and what can be done – for people with diabetes who are deaf. Dr. Michelle Litchman has six family members who are deaf and just one of the challenges this community faces is that sign language interpreters are not always offered or available. And when they are, they don’t always know how to communicate health information.
Over the next three years, Litchman will design diabetes programs with language in mind as part of a fellowship grant she’s been awarded.
https://beyondtype1.org/diabetes-program-accessibility/
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You might have heard about this big new study from Johns Hopkins saying that people with diabetes in the U.S. have become significantly less successful at controlling blood sugar. IMO it’s not being reported completely. Here’s the deal: These researchers used a survey that tracks 5,000 individuals annually for many health issues. Between 1992 and 2002, 44% of the study sample had an A1C under 7%.
From 2007 to 2010, 57% had an A1C under 7
From 2015 to 2018, that dropped to 50%.
Now.. that’s not great.. but it’s still an improvement from the initial starting point. And there was no published info about why. The price of insulin has only gone up since the beginning of this study and we have seen many other pieces showing that one in four people with diabetes in the US rations insulin.
So I’d be careful about extrapolating too much about behavior or food from this study.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/diabetes-blood-sugar-control-is-getting-worse-for-us-adults
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Up next.. making a pancreas with a printer?
quick break – want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
● Inside the Breakthrough is a podcast that mixes historical wisdom with modern insight – it’s a science show that’s also entertaining. I love it. They cover everything from snake oil to the actual Eureka moment. There’s even an episode about the guy who discovered the importance of hand washing in hospitals and how no one believed him. And this actually relates to diabetes! Listen to Inside the Breakthrough wherever you listen to podcasts..
Back to the news…
a new paper is out about the gap in women’s leadership in diabetes. These researchers say no one has quantified the percentage of women in leadership roles in our community. What they found? Not surprising – women are very well represented in terms of membership in professional communities and very much under-represented in leadership positions, grants and awards. They call for dropping barriers and creating environments that get more women in involved.
https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/journal-abstracts/the-womens-leadership-gap-in-diabetes-a-call-for-equity-and-excellence/
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And finally, A 3-D printing company is hoping to make diabetes research a little easier – by printing a living model of the human pancreas.
Readily-3D’s novel technology is being deployed within the EU-funded Enlight project and is reportedly capable of 3D printing a biological tissue containing human stem cells in just 30 seconds.
The Aim of the Enlight project is to develop the living pancreas model for the testing of new diabetes medications to improve both diagnosis and treatment.
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/readily3d-develops-3d-bioprinted-mini-pancreas-for-diabetes-drug-testing-191440/
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That’s Diabetes Connections – In the News. If you like it, share it. And feel free to send me your news tips. Stacey @ diabetes dash connections dot com.
Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode -Tuesday – we’re talking to a family taking part in the PROTECT trial – this is a study hoping to slow down or even stop diabetes in the newly diagnosed. This kid is my son’s age – 16 – he’s one year into diagnosis and he uses about 6 units of insulin a day. And the episode that’s out right now is an update from Beta Bionics all about the iLet insulin pump.
Thanks and I’ll see you soon