Blog

An innovative new category in self-monitoring has been added to the 2018 Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. According to Diabetes Canada, self-management of diabetes remains the cornerstone of diabetes care, making the addition of the “flash glucose monitoring” class an important tool to help improve patient outcomes. This new class of monitoring technology automatically measures, captures and stores glucose level data continuously so that patients and their doctors can see patterns over time and make adjustments to lifestyle, diet or treatment, when needed. The guidelines are published every five years by the top diabetes researchers and clinicians in Canada and they provide healthcare providers with the most up-to-date information on caring for people with diabetes.

Flash glucose monitoring has the unique ability to measure glucose every minute in interstitial fluid through a small filament that is inserted just under the skin and held in place with a small adhesive pad. Glucose levels are displayed on demand when the sensor is waved over, or “flashed”, with a hand-held scanner. The FreeStyle Libre system, the first-ever flash glucose monitoring system, developed by Abbott, was authorized for sale by Health Canada in 2017 and is covered by most private health insurance companies.

“Flash glucose monitoring is the next chapter in the management of diabetes,” says Tina Kader, M.D., endocrinologist, at the Jewish General Hospital and LMC Glen in Montreal. “Not only does it empower patients in their daily self-management, it also provides healthcare professionals with meaningful insights into their glucose control, which can lead to changes in their insulin dosing. Many of my patients see this as life changing and we are all very excited as we enter into this new era of diabetes management.”