Technology helps pregnant women with diabetes
Women who develop gestational diabetes are benefiting from new technology which makes it easier for our maternal diabetes team to monitor their blood sugar levels.
Clinicians recommend that people who develop diabetes during pregnancy test their blood sugar readings four times a day by pricking their finger and using a meter. Previously people would write these in a diary and bring these to appointments or email them to the maternal diabetes team.
Patients recently were able to log their recordings in the Agamatrix Diabetes Manager app, though they still needed to bring this to appointments or email the information. Now a chip in the meter sends the reading directly to the app and the hospital systems via cloud-based software, Ally. This information can then be instantly viewed by clinicians.
“Using the cloud-based software means we can have virtual appointments which often suit our service users more,” said Gemma Partridge, Consultant Obstetrician.
“This new software allows us to log in and see any trends so that we can review blood sugars and make tailored treatment recommendations if necessary. Even if people do see us face to face, it means they don’t need to remember to print or email their readings, so it just makes their lives easier.
“We have a brilliant team of diabetes specialist midwives who provide a lot of care between routine appointments and the software enables them to be much more responsive because they don’t need to wait for readings to be sent to them, and it reduces the administrative burden on them.”
Our maternal diabetes team is the first to use this software in pregnancy. It is used primarily by people with gestational diabetes and by some people who have type 2 diabetes and are pregnant.