People living with diabetes are the sole proprietors of their glucose self-management. Like small business owners, they invest a lot of their time and energy, and sometimes they need help. To implement diabetes tech, they need guidance from one or more experienced health care professionals.

In this episode, our cohosts talk about how various types of diabetes tech may help to keep patients motivated, and they discuss their experiences navigating insurance coverage for diabetes tech.

Topics include:

• Potential burnout from device fatigue and data overload
• Using diabetes apps and other tech to help with motivation
• Evaluating patient tech-savviness and comfort level
• Helping patients navigate insurance coverage for diabetes tech

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Matching a patient with the right tech for them is a collaboration between patient and provider. Some patients, such as the visually impaired, have fairly evident tech needs that you may know how to address. But you may not realize that tech has also been developed to address the needs of diabetes patients who exercise vigorously, have trouble carb counting, or live with multiple health conditions.

In this episode, the cohosts discuss helping people with diabetes find tech to fit their specific challenges.

Topics include:

• Keeping insulin cool in hot climates
• Helping patients take an active role in their tech selection
• Diabetes tech for caregivers of teens and seniors in long term care
• Using diabetes tech to help patients stay motivated
• Tracking diabetes data and comorbid conditions in a single app

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

When you’re considering diabetes tech, it may help to think about the practicalities from the patient’s perspective. What does it feel like to wear an insulin pump while you’re dancing? How much does a CGM sensor copay impact a patient’s budget? What goes through their mind when you suggest diabetes tech as an option?

In this episode, our cohosts discuss helping patients manage their concerns and integrate tech with their day-to-day realities.

Topics include:

• Cost-saving tips for patients after they’re prescribed diabetes tech
• Helping patients overcome hesitancy and stress about adopting diabetes tech
• Options for wearing CGMs and insulin pumps while staying active
• Diabetes tech with low-complexity user experience to reduce steps for patients with lower health literacy

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Some clinicians see the upside of diabetes tech but don’t know where to turn for help with insurance, training, and support. This may lead to hesitation in both clinicians and diabetes patients, leaving them resigned to older methods of self-management.

In this episode, the hosts discuss what clinicians need to know to overcome prescribing inertia and move forward with diabetes tech.

Topics include:

• Clinical inertia and how it may affect prescribing tendencies
• Educational resources to supplement a practice’s diabetes tech training
• Efforts to expand insurance coverage for CGMs
• Utilizing current Medicare coverage to optimize patients’ diabetes education

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

In a perfect world, people living with diabetes would be able to access and successfully use the diabetes technology that fits their needs. In reality, financial challenges, lack of healthcare services, and provider assumptions may keep some patients from getting diabetes tech. And for patients who are able to get access to diabetes tech, another set of barriers may prevent them from long term use.

In this episode, our cohosts discuss access to diabetes technology and how it can be impacted by cost, clinician bias, and social determinants of health.

Topics include:

• Practical cost considerations for patients 
• The need for training and support during diabetes tech adoption
• Clinician assumptions about education, race, and language barriers
• Publicly available resources like the Harvard Implicit Association Test
• How patients’ finances, health literacy, and geography may affect access to diabetes tech

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Diabetes technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and tools that seemed revolutionary a few years ago are now in widespread use. But some patients and clinicians are still reluctant to dip their toes in the diabetes tech pool. How can we help our patients (and ourselves) get comfortable with current tech tools and prepare to adapt to new tech that’s around the corner?

In this episode, our cohosts discuss current and future applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in diabetes technology and where we’re headed with electronic health records (EHR). They also make the case that the changing nature of tech shouldn’t keep people from using it now.

Topics include:

• AI technology and actionable insights
• Pairing machine learning with real-person coaching
• Electronic health records (EHR) and virtual clinics
• Compatibility across EHR platforms

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems don’t just administer insulin—they can also provide patients with robust glucose and insulin data. What can patients expect from automated insulin delivery? And how can using an AID help them better understand their diabetes?

In this episode, our cohosts dig into automated insulin delivery. They also explore how we can make diabetes data accessible and useful to different types of patients.

Topics include:

• Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems (aka “artificial pancreas”)
• Explaining diabetes data to patients in actionable terms
• Patient expectations and realistic self-management goals
• Pairing the right technology with the right person

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Do we get all the data we need from our patients with diabetes? Is it accurate? Is it complete? When we’re trying to make sound, data-driven treatment decisions, we’re relying on the numbers, and sometimes those numbers aren’t the full picture.

This episode is a deep dive into data and its role in helping patients manage aspects of their diabetes.

Topics include:

• A brief history of blood sugar monitoring
• Comparing A1C, TIR, AGP, and other metrics
• Using diabetes data to inform patient self-management

The Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Patients and clinicians both feel the time crunch when it comes to diabetes care, and that may affect how well they work together to manage diabetes. 

In this episode, our cohosts discuss their experiences with technology and efforts to make communication and self-management more efficient for patients.

Topics include:

• How clinicians’ time limitations impact patient care 
• Communicating efficiently by text and telemedicine
• Facilitating efficient patient-provider discussions
• Smart pens and data capture technology
• Automated insulin delivery systems

Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.

Every day, people with diabetes may spend hours on blood sugar monitoring, dose logging, and other self-management tasks. As clinicians, we can help patients integrate diabetes technology into their routine so they can make the most efficient use of their time.

Today, our cohosts share stories of time-management challenges with diabetes and how some digital health tools have helped their patients reduce their daily time commitment.

Topics include:

• Time spent on tasks other than glucose monitoring
• Saving time via CGMs, telehealth, and online pharmacies
• Diabetes burnout
• An app to help teens with diabetes and their caregivers in the transition to independent self-management
• How age at diagnosis may affect patients’ perception of diabetes

Diabetes Tech-up™ podcast is brought to you by Novo Nordisk.