As a nurse, researcher, and educator at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado School of Medicine for the past 17 years, Laurel Messer, PhD, has conducted clinical trials that have brought to market devices to help diabetic patients monitor their blood sugar and deliver insulin.

Despite the availability of multiple devices, however, primary care physicians and endocrinologists often do not have the time to educate themselves about the wide variety of technologies available to their patients with diabetes, which means many are going without devices that can. make their lives easier and help them better manage their illness.

“There are all these really cool diabetes technologies out there that can help people with diabetes,” Messer says. “There are blood glucose monitors that tell you your glucose level every five minutes, and you don’t even have to prick your finger; there are devices that make it easier to deliver insulin or that calculate doses so that you can give more accurate insulin. But only a very limited number of providers really know enough about these devices, or are willing to prescribe them for their patients, because they don’t have the time to educate themselves about them and understand how to use the data effectively.

Armed with a $ 2.7 million grant from the Helmsley Foundation, Messer is looking to solve this problem. She will spend the next 36 months working with medical software company DreaMed Diabetes to create an online platform where providers can enter information about specific diabetic patients and be directed to potentially beneficial devices and new dose recommendations. insulin for their specific situations. DreaMed already commercially offers healthcare professionals an automated decision support platform for insulin dosing and will co-create the new functionalities with Messer for this project.

“We want to create an online platform that helps providers navigate the discussion with the patient about device selection,” Messer says, “then help them write the prescription and help the patient order the device. ‘device. Then, once the patient is on the device, we want to provide them with information on how to interpret this data in order to inform better insulin dosing and navigate discussions of self-management behaviors. . “

Early registration

Once the new system – dubbed the Shared Empowerment for Early Device Success (SEEDS Pathway) – is developed, Messer plans to enroll 15 physicians to test it with diabetic patients, looking at the results, including improved glycemic control. , financial viability and supplier and user satisfaction.

“Five of the providers will be in primary care, five in pediatric endocrinology and five in adult endocrinology,” she says. “We’re going to educate them about the platform – we’re going to teach them how to use it and answer their questions about the diabetes devices – and then we’re going to ask them to each enroll five patients so that they can or using the SEEDS platform to bring these patients to devices.

On a mission to improve patient care

Messer is the creator and director of the PANTHER program at the Barbara Davis Center, which also strives to educate healthcare providers and people with diabetes about devices for diabetes, including continuous glucose sensors and insulin delivery systems. She sees the SEEDS path as the next step in her mission to connect people with diabetes to technology that can improve and extend their lives.

“When we see these patients in the clinic, we find that their blood sugar control improves,” she says of patients with diabetes who use the devices. “We are seeing their lifestyles improve – they have to think less about their diabetes. In general, diabetes technology is a net positive for the majority of people, and by allowing more promotion of the devices by more vendors, we will see benefits for more people with diabetes.

Once the Helmsley Foundation-funded study was completed, Messer plans to have created an easy-to-use, easy-to-access platform that bridges the gap between provider knowledge and the availability of technology to help patients – especially in medically underserved populations where access to specialists is scarce.

“It provides an accelerated gateway to getting the best care you can get from community physicians who may not be subspecialized in diabetes – physicians who would not normally be able to offer the latest technology.” , she says. “From a public health perspective, it’s about equipping as many people with diabetes as possible with the best tools possible to control their blood sugar, which could allow them to live 10 more years, or not have to deal with vascular complications of diabetes resulting in disability.

“I want to see a reduction in morbidity and mortality from diabetes, and if equipping doctors is part of that path, that’s what I want to do.”

Warning: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of any press releases posted on EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information via the EurekAlert system.