Efforts to control diabetes are more effective when patients have a detailed understanding of their blood sugar levels in real time, which is why medical device companies like Medtronic and Abbott Laboratories are recognizing the benefits of their new blood systems. continuous monitoring of blood glucose.

Abbott said its FreeStyle Free system can help patients control their blood glucose reliably at a lower cost than with finger-stick devices, while Medtronic said its new Sugar.IQ app and its Guardian Connect sensor can generate predictive alerts up to one hour in advance of glucose problems using artificial intelligence.

Both systems are newly approved; Medtronic began shipping its autonomous system this month.

The companies presented their latest clinical and real data on CGM systems at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), to be held until Tuesday in Orlando.

Diabetes has quickly become the most expensive chronic health condition in the United States, accounting for $ 237 billion in direct medical costs last year and $ 90 billion in lost productivity, according to a study prepared under the direction of the ADA.

Up to 25 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, with over 700,000 new cases occurring each year. Although diabetes can be controlled by changes in diet and exercise, many diabetics end up taking prescription drugs and using medical devices to treat the disease.

The market for standalone CGM systems now accounts for more than $ 1 billion in global sales and is growing by at least 30 percent a year, Medtronic officials said.

Diabetes is a condition in which a person's body does not properly use the sugars in its blood needed for energy, leading to a range of short-term and long-term problems. Many diabetics control their blood sugar levels with several daily injections of insulin, the hormone that the body normally produces to break down blood sugars.

But synthetic insulin is a powerful medicine. And unlike most medical conditions, patients (or their parents) are usually responsible for deciding how much medication to take in real time. People with diabetes have long been looking for the best ways to get the most reliable data about what is happening in their own blood.

To achieve this goal, medical device manufacturers are putting more emphasis on the development of accurate sensors that can be worn on the body for a week, which allows for more reliable readings than can be done. use of "finger-stick" devices that draw blood from the tip of a finger and then provide a glucose reading.

At the ADA Orlando meeting, Abbott highlighted the results of a meta-analysis of 17 previous studies of "flash" glucose monitoring with his FreeStyle Free device. The study study, based on real-world patients not recruited by Abbott, revealed that people who used the device had an average reduction of 0.56 point of a measurement called A1C, which examines glucose control over time.

"From a glucose control point of view, we see a very strong relationship between people who control their blood sugar more often and control it," said Tim Dunn, director of clinical and computational research at Abbott.

Another study by ADA examined the new factory-calibrated FreeStyle Free flash monitor system approved by the FDA last September. People who used the portable disposable sensor system spent $ 120 less per month than if they performed six finger pricks. day at standard prices.

With the speed with which diabetes costs are rising, the cost-effectiveness of diabetes therapies is becoming more and more important, Dunn said.

Medtronic, meanwhile, enters the CGM market.

Medtronic has made the headlines of its advanced MiniMed 670G insulin pump, which reads Medtronic's Guardian Connect sensor data, disposable and worn on the body, to automatically decide to adjust the base flow of administration. Insulin from a patient. Now that the sensor is sold as a standalone device, patients can use it to calibrate manual insulin injections.

The Guardian Connect is associated with a free program from the Apple App Store called Sugar.IQ, which uses artificial intelligence to examine current and past blood glucose readings of a diabetic patient to predict whether glucose levels will be too high or too low.

While other systems offer alerts up to 20 minutes in advance, Medtronic has stated that its system is the only one that gives up to 60 minutes of warning; which can be especially important for people who work long hours on power lines or when driving. semi-trailer trucks. Some forms of insulin take more than 20 minutes to be effective.

The device also analyzes past changes in a person's blood sugar to detect trends, then alerts them if a high or low level is coming. Using all these features, 256 system users each spent an average of 36 more minutes per day in their desired blood glucose range in a recent study, ADA researchers said. The study found that 86% of users rated the alerts as "useful" or "not useful."

"We are classifying it as an intelligent CMM," said Laura Stoltenberg, general manager of the daily injection solutions business at Medtronic's Diabetes Group. "We believe we are the first in the intelligent CGM category."