Voice enabled technology can help blid diabetic patiens cope better with the disease. This invention is worthy of a prize.
Using voice-enabled continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in legally blind patients with insulin-treated diabetes can help improve glycemic control and reduce severe hypoglycemia, US researchers say.
Writing in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, H Kaan Akturk and colleagues at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes in Aurora, Colorado, demonstrate that diabetes treatment in this group of individuals may be difficult because "insulin administration devices such as pens and pumps and glucose control systems are not commonly adapted for visually impaired patients with diabetes."
The Dexcom G6 system is, say, the first, and currently only CGM device to address this. They clarify that users of Dexcom G6 can ask Siri's voice-enabled feature (Apple Inc, Cupertino, California , USA) to read their glucose readings and display their graph on a locked smartphone screen directly.
At baseline, mean levels between patients ranged from approximately 7.2 percent to 10.0 percent (55–86 mmol / mol), while after 12 months this range was approximately 5.0 percent to 8.8 percent (31–73 mmol / mol). 3.9–10.0 mmol / L) increased considerably from an average of 50.9 percent at 3 months to 56.8 percent at 12 months, with no corresponding rise in hypoglycemic time. The mean time spent in extreme hypoglycemia (< 54 mg / dL;3.0 mmol / L) was 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent , respectively, at 3 months and 2.2 per cent at 12 months.
One patient encountered three episodes in the 12 months prior to initiating use of Dexcom G6 with Siri, and five patients each encountered one episode. By contrast, no such episodes were reported in any of the patients with Siri use during the first 12 months of Dexcom G6. They say patients "must use [the] Dexcom software on the mobile to warn to hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia with adjustable loud warning settings." They say patients may then ask Siri about their glucose level and proactively enhance diabetes management.
The team claims that "easy accessibility to CGM glucose levels may decrease the ongoing monitoring of visually impaired patients to caregivers on intensive insulin therapy and may decrease the response time for hypoglycemia."
This article first appeared on https://www.medwirenews.com