Clinical Director

There have been many big questions about how the Sars-CoV-2 virus relates to diabetes, especially for our CWD community. Now that we are 18 months into the pandemic, we have more answers to help you navigate the COVID-19 era. Q: Are adults with type 1 diabetes at an increased risk for severe illness if they contract the Sars-CoV-2 virus? A: It is true that adults with type 1 diabetes are at an increased risk for severe illness, hospitalization, and mortality while in the hospital.1 One of the challenges is that as a person with diabetes (PWD), experiencing nausea and vomiting […]

Closed loop insulin delivery systems are becoming more accessible to people living with diabetes (PWD). They come in different forms, but have a few key pieces in common: an insulin delivery method (usually a pump), a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and a software algorithm that uses the data from the CGM to drive insulin delivery. All closed loop systems have the goal of improving health outcomes for people with diabetes, including the improvement of quality of life. Diabetes is a constant day-to-day burden that requires a lot of time and energy to manage. Having a system that drives itself with […]

If you wear an insulin pump, you were probably told, “When in doubt, change it out.” That means that if your blood sugar is high for a seemingly inexplicable reason, it’s likely the infusion set not working properly. Some researchers are trying to create infusion sets that last longer in the body, and others are working on algorithms to detect infusion set problems earlier. As discussed in this article from the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, ways to identify infusion set failures automatically have been investigated, but not tested on real data.1 The authors acknowledge the challenges in creating […]

People with diabetes are often turning to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to help improve their diabetes management. The technology has improved dramatically since the first CGM was on the market in the early 2000’s and has been proven in studies repeatedly to help improve glycemic control for people with diabetes.1,2 When the first commonly used CGMs were available to patients in the U.S., each company had their own proprietary software that would allow people with diabetes and their health care teams to review their CGM Data. This became a barrier in a couple of major ways. First, if you wore […]

Since diabetes is such an individualized experience, it’s important for the people living with diabetes to be involved in making the choices for their diabetes self-management. One of the benefits of having the healthcare system that we have in the United States is having options to choose from with regards to healthcare. But who actually decides what tools or medications you have available to you as a person with diabetes? Your insurance. Most private insurance companies will cover what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cover.1 Essentially, private coverage depends on CMS coverage. Diabetes researchers recently looked at […]

Written and clinically reviewed by Marissa Town, RN, BSN, CDCES According to the World Health Organization, heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide.1 It’s also the number one cause of death in the United States.2 Fortunately, there are many options for reducing risk for heart disease. Similarly to treating diabetes, heart disease prevention is a combination of lifestyle modifications and medications. However, there are inconsistent recommendations for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D),3 and even the 2021 American Diabetes Associations’ Standards of Care notes this in section 10 on cardiovascular disease and risk management.4 It’s often assumed that […]