Abstract
Background and Aims
Users of Medtronic Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion (CSII) pumps can upload clinical data onto the carelink website where it can be viewed by the user’s physician. More frequent uploads allow physicians’ to see more up to date information as well as suggesting greater interaction with the resource by patients’. While the overall impact of pumps on glycaemic control has been investigated, it has yet to be seen whether upload frequency has any bearing on the outcome. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between upload frequency and glycaemic control.
Methods
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of Medtronic pump users attending the Centre of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Galway University Hospital. A HbA1c value taken before commencing pump therapy and the most recent HbA1c were recorded. This change in HbA1c was then correlated with the average time between technology uploads.
Results
There were 24 patients in the cohort, 13 male 11 female. The mean age was 44.46. The pearson correlation between the change in HbA1c and the average time between uploads returned a coefficient of .44, p-value of .024. This suggests that an increased time between uploads (less frequent) is positively correlated with the change in HbA1c.
Conclusions
The results of the pearson correlation support an increased frequency of technology uploads improving a patient’s HbA1c in the long term. The size of the cohort is a limiting factor, a larger study should be done to further investigate any relationship.
