Education & Training

Because blood glucose measurement results are used to direct and assess therapy, accuracy is crucial. There are a variety of factors, however, that can interfere with the accuracy of blood glucose measurements, including patient errors and interfering medicines used to treat comorbidities. This article discusses factors that can interfere with accuracy, and provides advice for how some of these can be avoided.

This is a short 3 hour carbohydrate counting course delivered over 2 sessions, that enables you to deliver the training to your patients. The course is designed for adults with diabetes on flexible insulin therapy, to be delivered by a registered dietitian.

Although HbA1c measurements are the traditional measurement for assessing the effectiveness of diabetes management and valuable as a long-term glycaemic marker, HbA1c does not provide insight into short-term episodes of high or low blood glucose levels that patients experience. Here we explore how HbA1c can be combined with structured self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) to gain a more complete picture.

Pattern management is the systematic interpretation of self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) results and contextual data over time to help you and your patients identify glycaemic deviations. Following this four-step approach to pattern management could help you to ensure you are focusing on the right areas.

Structured monitoring - or self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) with a plan and a purpose - can take different forms and can be extremely useful in influencing patient behaviour. It not only gives your patients periodic updates on their blood glucose levels, but also provides data that can inform conversations to maximise therapy outcomes.