Glucose Monitoring Tech Helps Patients Manage Type-1 Diabetes

Daniel Naranjo was only 11-years old when he was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes.

“I was taken to the hospital and put into a medically induced coma for about a week,” Daniel says.

For years, Daniel struggled to control his blood sugar levels. That was until Rodolfo Galindo, M.D., an endocrinologist and Director of the Comprehensive Diabetes Center at UHealth, introduced him to technology to help manage the disease.

Glucose Monitoring Technology Changes Patient’s Life

“Something called continuous glucose monitoring, or CGMs. So, these are very small devices under the skin in the back of the arm or in the abdomen, and it checks or measures glucose every one, five, or fifteen minutes,” Dr. Galindo explains. “Patients are now able to see their glucose on their smartphones or a receiver all the time, and in real time.”  

At UHealth’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center, the technology to manage Type-1 diabetes is not only the standard of care, it has also dramatically changed patients’ lives for the better.

“It indicates my glucose level, it predicts how much insulin should be delivered. The best thing about it is I don’t need to prick my finger,” says Daniel.

“There is no doubt that automated insulin delivery systems are really much better in what we call precision medicine. That system is able to use the glucose that is measured by the sensor right now, be analyzed by the algorithm that is on the cloud and then tells the insulin pump, I need now this very little amount of insulin to be delivered over the next few minutes, or I need more insulin to be delivered right now and a little bit later. This is the closest we are to a pancreas and very likely the closest we are ever going to get,” Dr. Galindo says.

Daniel no longer faces dangerous blood sugar drops or spikes. He even lost weight!

“I was able to drop 30 pounds and manage my exercise, my blood sugar to an extent that I didn’t think was possible before,” says Daniel.

He is forever grateful to Dr. Galindo and the entire UHealth team!

“I’m actually in control of my diabetes. With the help of Dr. Galindo and the information that he’s been giving me. It is life changing,” Daniel says.

Video transcript compiled by Janna Ross for ‘Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine,’ a series of health care-related stories airing regularly on WPLG Local 10.  For more stories like this one, visit UHealth’s YouTube channel.

Tags: automated insulin delivery system, CGM, continuous glucose monitoring, Diabetes, Dr. Rodolfo Galindo, endocrinologist, focusing on you, type 1 diabetes