12 months in and yr out, many of the blood glucose tech you see at CES are gadgets that won’t come out for years, if ever. That’s why it was refreshing to see Dexcom roll as much as CES 2024 to speak about one thing a bit extra tangible: its forthcoming Stelo steady glucose monitor (CGM), a wearable sensor that gives a real-time have a look at your blood sugar ranges. Not like most CGMs, the Stelo is particularly designed to be an inexpensive choice for Sort 2 diabetics who don’t use insulin.
Not like Sort 1 diabetes, the place an individual produces little to no insulin, Sort 2 diabetes is when, over time, the physique both doesn’t produce sufficient insulin or the physique turns into insulin resistant. Roughly 90 to 95 % of all identified diabetics have Sort 2. Nevertheless, in the event that they management their glucose ranges via oral medicine reasonably than inject insulin, they often don’t have entry to CGM gadgets.
“The best way CGMs work within the US is that protection is fairly good in the event you take insulin, and that’s a couple of third of individuals with Sort 2 diabetes,” says Dexcom COO Jake Leach. “However there’s this massive portion of about 25 million individuals who don’t have insurance coverage protection for CGMs and there actually hasn’t been a product designed for them.”
In response to Leach, the Stelo relies on Dexcom’s present G7 CGM platform and can final for about 15 days per sensor. Nevertheless, as a substitute of a system that facilities round low blood sugar alerts — which is most helpful for many who use insulin — the Stelo app is supposed to offer insights round real-time readings. In different phrases, this isn’t a tool meant to avoid wasting lives, however reasonably enhance them.
For instance, Leach says, the hope is that via utilizing Stelo, Sort 2 diabetics who don’t usually verify their blood sugar with finger prick assessments can come away with a better understanding of what their regular common blood glucose vary appears like, and what to do with that information. For instance, they may study that pairing white rice with hen and greens at dinner results in a decrease spike than rice eaten alone. Or that the identical meals eaten earlier within the night time lead to a much less intense glucose response. Ideally, that might empower them to make smarter decisions daily between physician visits.
It’s much like pitches from different CGM startups that tout utilizing these gadgets for athletes or the uber well being aware. However whereas Leach sees the alternatives for CGMs for non-diabetics, he says Dexcom is selecting to remain targeted on increasing use instances for these with diabetes.
“Everybody who has a CGM that I’ve talked to learns one thing about their food plan that they didn’t know that was sudden,” says Leach. “CGMs are instruments that may assist you perceive, however to ensure that them to achieve success in serving to individuals, it’s bought to be correctly designed for that group.”
Leach has some extent. Final yr, I examined the Nutrisense CGM, and whereas I undoubtedly discovered issues about myself, there wasn’t a motive for me, a non-diabetic, to maintain carrying one long run. In the meantime, blood glucose tech at CES could be a wild, directionless hodgepodge. When trawling the present ground, not everybody has reply after I ask about regulatory clearance, timelines, who precisely this tech is supposed to assist, and what issues they’re attempting to resolve.
That’s why it’s thrilling to see that Stelo has a a lot clearer mission assertion. Dexcom is a medical machine firm with expertise bringing this kind of tech to the market and with working with the FDA. Leach tells me that specializing in software program over the previous couple of years permits Dexcom to push frequent updates to deal with person suggestions and desires. Proper now, the Dexcom G6 and G7 join with over 100 digital apps and Leach says the plan is make certain Stelo additionally has a full ecosystem out there.
However the cherry on high is a dedication to accessibility. Leach didn’t give me a closing value — partly as a result of the product shouldn’t be but out there, but in addition as a result of insurance coverage makes it not possible to definitively say how a lot something will value. In response to Leach, most Dexcom clients pay lower than $40 if their insurance coverage covers CGMs. Medicare sufferers pay round $50 month-to-month, whereas a 3rd are fortunate sufficient to pay nothing in any respect. In case you’re not coated, nonetheless, Dexcom CGMs can value round $173 a month out of pocket. The Stelo is meant to come back at a extra aggressive value for individuals who should pay out of pocket.
The Stelo CGM is presently going via the FDA clearance course of, with plans to launch this summer season. It’s not a on condition that Sort 2 diabetics will instantly glom onto CGMs as a type of therapy. And whereas Leach says physicians he’s spoken to are in favor of this tech for Sort 2 diabetics, we nonetheless should see how the medical group will incorporate this. (Wearable information, for instance, isn’t at all times useful to docs.) Besides, the potential of positively impacting tens of millions of underserved individuals is a noble endeavor. That’s the kind of revolutionary spirit you wish to see at CES.
