Technology in Diabetes Treatment: Update and Future

Abstract

Worldwide the number of people with diabetes mellitus is increasing. There are estimations that diabetes is one of the leading causes of death. The most important goals for the treatment of diabetes are self-management of the disease and an optimal quality of diabetes control. In the therapy new technologies, like real-time continuous interstitial glucose monitoring, continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII), electronic tools for the monitoring of therapeutic approaches, automated bolus calculators for insulin and electronic tools for education and information of patients, have become widespread and play important roles. All these efforts are related to the interaction between patients, caregivers, scientists or researchers and industry. The presentation of different aspects of new technological approaches in the present article should give more information about different technologies. However, because of the rather quickly appearance of new technologies, the presentation can only be a spotlight. Further studies are mandatory to analyze the effects and long-term benefits of each technology and electronic device.

Keywords: Diabetes; HbA1c; Insulin; hypoglycemia; pump.