Practical CGM
Gary Scheiner, MS, CDE
Use of real-time continuous glucose monitors among people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes is growing rapidly and should continue to grow until an artificial pancreas is brought to market. Likewise, use of professional systems in healthcare practices is expanding. But, other than manufacturer instructional manuals and some book chapters on CGMs, there are no standalone publications available with concise, non-commercial instructions on CGM prescription and use.
Additionally, continuous glucose monitors are too often not used to their full and proper potential. This leaves users with suboptimal glucose control and can result in system abandonment.
To address this, diabetes educator and author Gary Scheiner has created Practical CGM: Improving Patient Outcomes through Continuous Glucose Monitoring to give healthcare providers the skill to make more effective use of the data generated by continuous glucose monitors, in both real-time and on a retrospective analytic basis. Using a plain-language approach and distilling content to concise, practical tips and techniques, Scheiner has created a guide that will help practitioners optimize patient use of CGM systems and, ultimately, improve glucose control and patient health outcomes.
The subtitle of Gary Scheiner’s book Practical CGM defines the goal for this book: A Guide for Improving Outcomes through Continuous Glucose Monitoring. Continuous glucose monitoring — or CGM — is arguably the single most important tool available to help people with type 1 diabetes to achieve their glucose management goals. A CGM provides not only 288 discrete measurements each day, but it also clearly shows trends, allowing the wearer to take action before their glucose level gets too high or too low. Alarms for pending or actual highs and lows are equally important, affording wearers (and their families) with the potential to sleep at night knowing that the CGM is watching their glucose levels. While there has been innovation in the market since the 2015 publication of Practical CGM, the guidance offered by well-known CDE Gary Scheiner still apply and can help every CGM user get the most out of this incredibly important too.
Published by the American Diabetes Association. 112 pages, paperback. $19.95. ISBN 978-1-58040-603-1.2015
