Bill Harvey: On the road again

After the shock of seeing the Queen playing We Will Rock You with Paddington, I switched over to catch the latest in the Beck Scandi-noir crime series. Hardly more relaxing, the plot involved the kidnap of a diabetic child whose father was able to see her gradually diminishing glucose levels over his iPhone using the Freestyle Libre system.

When we first reported on this technology (Optician 28.09.18), it was newly released and only used by a few patients, usually ones who could afford it and so not having to ask for NHS funding. Since then, many patients use the system and it is commonplace now to see patients checking their iPhone to see what their glucose level is or to respond to an alarm when levels get too high or low. The ability to self-monitor and, where useful, transfer data to a clinician is all the more important in these post-pandemic times, where clinic time is still at a premium and where compliance with ongoing management is so essential.