Telemedicine Is Changing the Game in Diabetes Management

There was a lot to unpack from Dexcom's first-quarter earnings call this week, but one of the key takeaways from management comments is that diabetes patients and caregivers are latching onto telemedicine as a way to stay on top of their glucose levels during COVID-19. This isn't surprising, given that we've seen a substantial increase in telemedicine adoption across healthcare during this crisis, but it is especially important for newly diagnosed patients needing continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology. "Our extensive virtual resources for patient and clinician training and customer support are proving to be especially important as the world embraces the increasing use of telemedicine platforms," CEO Kevin Sayer said during the call, according to SeekingAlpha transcripts. "The drastic but necessary steps to mitigate the spread of the virus have also created some areas of unpredictability for us as we continue in our second quarter and the remainder of 2020. We have seen some impact in new patient opportunities since the broader social distancing measures were put in place in mid-March." Previously, CGM adoption was driven primarily by office visits during which physicians saw a need to recommend the technology to a diabetes patient. Sayer and other executives on the call seemed hopeful, however, that telemedicine patient encounters will provide a channel for those new patient CGM recommendations to continue. FDA recently removed the three-hour delay requirement for CG...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Digital Health Source Type: news