Dexcom’s Stelo CGM is is a well being tech gadget with function

12 months in and yr out, many of the blood glucose tech you see at CES are gadgets that will not come out for years, if ever. That’s why it was refreshing to see Dexcom roll as much as CES 2024 to speak about one thing a bit extra tangible: its forthcoming Stelo steady glucose monitor (CGM), a wearable sensor that gives a real-time have a look at your blood sugar ranges. Not like most CGMs, the Stelo is particularly designed to be an inexpensive possibility for Sort 2 diabetics who don’t use insulin.

Not like Sort 1 diabetes, the place an individual produces little to no insulin, Sort 2 diabetes is when, over time, the physique both doesn’t produce sufficient insulin or the physique turns into insulin resistant. Roughly 90 to 95 p.c of all identified diabetics have Sort 2. Nevertheless, in the event that they management their glucose ranges by oral medicine fairly than inject insulin, they often don’t have entry to CGM gadgets.

“The way in which CGMs work within the US is that protection is fairly good when you take insulin, and that’s a couple of third of individuals with Sort 2 diabetes,” says Dexcom COO Jake Leach. “However there’s this huge portion of about 25 million individuals who don’t have insurance coverage protection for CGMs and there actually hasn’t been a product designed for them.”

In response to Leach, the Stelo relies on Dexcom’s present G7 CGM platform and can final for about 15 days per sensor. Nevertheless, as an alternative of a system that facilities round low blood sugar alerts — which is most helpful for many who use insulin — the Stelo app is supposed to supply insights round real-time readings. In different phrases, this isn’t a tool meant to avoid wasting lives, however fairly enhance them.

For instance, Leach says, the hope is that by utilizing Stelo, Sort 2 diabetics who don’t recurrently examine their blood sugar with finger prick exams can come away with a larger understanding of what their regular common blood glucose vary seems to be like, and what to do with that information. For instance, they could be taught that pairing white rice with hen and greens at dinner results in a decrease spike than rice eaten alone. Or that the identical meals eaten earlier within the night time end in a much less intense glucose response. Ideally, that might empower them to make smarter decisions day after day between physician visits.

It’s much like pitches from different CGM startups that tout utilizing these gadgets for athletes or the uber well being acutely aware. However whereas Leach sees the alternatives for CGMs for non-diabetics, he says Dexcom is selecting to remain centered on increasing use circumstances for these with diabetes.

“Everybody who has a CGM that I’ve talked to learns one thing about their food plan that they didn’t know that was surprising,” says Leach. “CGMs are instruments that may aid you perceive, however to ensure that them to achieve success in serving to folks, it’s obtained to be correctly designed for that group.”

Leach has some extent. Final yr, I examined the Nutrisense CGM, and whereas I undoubtedly realized issues about myself, there wasn’t a purpose for me, a non-diabetic, to maintain sporting one long run. In the meantime, blood glucose tech at CES could be a wild, directionless hodgepodge. When trawling the present ground, not everybody has reply after I ask about regulatory clearance, timelines, who precisely this tech is supposed to assist, and what issues they’re attempting to unravel.

That’s why it’s thrilling to see that Stelo has a a lot clearer mission assertion. Dexcom is a medical machine firm with expertise bringing this form of tech to the market and with working with the FDA. Leach tells me that specializing in software program over the previous couple of years permits Dexcom to push frequent updates to handle consumer suggestions and desires. Proper now, the Dexcom G6 and G7 join with over 100 digital apps and Leach says the plan is be certain that Stelo additionally has a full ecosystem out there.

However the cherry on prime is a dedication to accessibility. Leach didn’t give me a last value — partly as a result of the product will not be but out there, but in addition as a result of insurance coverage makes it unimaginable to definitively say how a lot something will value. In response to Leach, most Dexcom prospects pay lower than $40 if their insurance coverage covers CGMs. Medicare sufferers pay round $50 month-to-month, whereas a 3rd are fortunate sufficient to pay nothing in any respect. When you’re not lined, nonetheless, Dexcom CGMs can value round $173 a month out of pocket. The Stelo is meant to return at a extra aggressive value for individuals who need to pay out of pocket.

The Stelo CGM is at present going by the FDA clearance course of, with plans to launch this summer season. It’s not a on condition that Sort 2 diabetics will instantly glom onto CGMs as a type of remedy. And whereas Leach says physicians he’s spoken to are in favor of this tech for Sort 2 diabetics, we nonetheless need to see how the medical neighborhood will incorporate this. (Wearable information, for instance, isn’t all the time useful to docs.) Besides, the potential of positively impacting hundreds of thousands of underserved folks is a noble endeavor. That’s the form of modern spirit you need to see at CES.