The Role of Real-Time Glucose Monitoring

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Diabetes mellitus is a widespread disease affecting 387 million individuals worldwide and is projected to exceed half a billion by 2035 [1]. Despite spending over $175 million annually in direct medical costs, there has been an overall lack of success with disease management [2]. One likely contributor to this phenomenon is clinical inertia, or the failure to intensify or modify treatment following lab results that show a patient is not at evidence-based goals. Stain et al. [3] found that impairments in communication are at the heart of clinical inertia [3]. Furthermore, it can be difficult to accurately assess disease progression due to poor documentation and communication of patient-monitored blood sugars. Accurate and efficient communication between the patient and provider needs to be a key factor to efficiently manage the disease.