Choosing the Best Diabetes Devices: How DiabetesWise Leads the Charge

These common challenges can be addressed by DiabetesWise's impressive range of products. It’s time to learn about these solutions and discover how they can assist you, whether you are a person with diabetes or a provider. From  continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to insulin pumps, DiabetesWise makes diabetes technology simple for individuals, and DiabetesWise Pro helps healthcare professionals prescribe with confidence.

What is DiabetesWise Pro?

If you are a healthcare provider supporting patients with diabetes, you might struggle to understand the options available to your patients, what is covered by their insurance, and how to explain the latest technology and its practical application in their daily lives.  DiabetesWise Pro is a free, unbranded, and unbiased prescription tool that allows healthcare professionals (HCPs) to create and access personalized care plans for their patients. These plans can address specific circumstances and disease states.

Regardless of the type of diabetes your patients have and how they prefer to manage it, this tool is helpful.

DiabetesWise Pro helps HCPs find the best diabetes devices, such CGMs, insulin pumps, and smart pens, tailored to individual needs. This system also provides quick access to insurance details, making it easy to see which diabetes devices are covered by a person's health insurance plan.

Additionally, DiabetesWise Pro offers information to help HCPs understand the basics of diabetes device management and patient support, share best practices, and dispel common misconceptions about diabetes devices. The tool can even help you send patient check-ups. 

What is DiabetesWise?

DiabetesWise is designed for people living with diabetes. It helps anyone affected by the disease identify which devices best suit their lifestyles. Users can take quick quizzes to discover potential upgrades for their diabetes care. The DiabetesWise team understands that choosing diabetes devices is a very personal decision. People with diabetes rely on their supplies to survive. 

It’s not just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have for life!

DiabetesWise shares which insulin pumps and CGMs work best together, for example, removing the need for you to do your own research. It’s an all-in-one tool! In addition to this system, they also share instructions on how to obtain a sensor, an insulin pump, or a smart pen. You can also find guides on self-advocacy, determining whether you qualify for insurance, understanding your out-of-pocket costs, and how to initiate conversations with your doctor. 

These resources help streamline the approval process, enabling you to have more productive conversations and achieve better outcomes with your doctor.

What is DiabetesWiser?

DiabetesWiser is the community and discussion forum for DiabetesWise. This platform allows people with diabetes to chat about devices, health, and daily life. You can easily join the community by visiting the landing page, connecting with like-minded individuals, and even receiving expert advice from the team that developed this tool at Stanford.

Here are a few of the topics you’ll find information about:

• Getting started with DiabetesWise
• Exercising during major life transitions
• Navigating diabetes through contact sports
• Dexcom G6 versus G7 experiences
• Person-oriented precision screening

DiabetesWise: New Exercise Guides

What’s new at DiabetesWise is the advice they share about empowering people with diabetes to move while wearing their devices. Movement is good for everyone. When it comes to blood sugar management, it’s especially helpful for people with diabetes.

A body in motion stays in motion!

DiabetesWise shares device-specific guidelines and standards so that people with diabetes can optimize their workouts even better while using their insulin pumps, CGMs, or smart pens. CGMs can help make exercise more approachable. Regular activity supports overall health, from better sleep to weight management to stronger muscles and bones. There are so many reasons to find an exercise you love and do more of it!

With DiabetesWise, you’ll find guides for:

• Exercising with diabetes
• Understanding barriers to exercise
• Understanding exercise intensity
• Exercise tips and adhesives
• Managing lows during exercise
• Young children and exercise

• Glucose monitoring and exercise
• Pumps and exercise
• Smart pens and exercise
• Scuba and exercise
• Nutrition for physical activity with type 1 diabetes
• Physical activity guide for older adults
• Exercise resources in the diabetes space
• INSPIRE T1D Global Exercise Collaborative
• Comparing different exercise guidelines
• Special factors while being active and finding the right automated insulin delivery (AID) system

What’s Next at DiabetesWise?

Korey K. Hood, PhD, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and the founder of DiabetesWise, stated, “We have been working diligently on the exercise content, led by Dr. Dessi P. Zaharieva here at Stanford. Our goal is to make it beneficial for both people with diabetes and their healthcare providers. This has been our primary focus for the past year or so.”

Dr. Zaharevia is an Instructor, Certified Exercise Physiologist (CEP), and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) working in Pediatric Endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine. 

Stanford shares that Dr. Zaharevia is currently focusing on a few key areas that complement her work with DiabetesWise:

• Strategies for managing blood glucose levels around exercise in youth and adults with type 1 diabetes. 
• She serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the 4T Exercise Study, which implements exercise education and monitors physical activity in newly diagnosed youth with T1D through support from the Hemsley Charitable Trust.
• She is working on integrating wearable physical activity tracker data and CGM data into the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Timely Interventions for Diabetes Excellence (TIDE) remote monitoring platform.

The impressive team at DiabetesWise has also been diligently working on a patch pump series for its users. People with type 1 and type 2 can benefit from patch pumps. They anticipate sharing information about additional types of insulin delivery on their website soon.

DiabetesWise explains that patch pumps are small, wearable devices that offer an alternative to traditional pumps. They are discreet and convenient for insulin management, offering users freedom and flexibility. For individuals who struggle to manage their diabetes with conventional pumps, patch pumps can be a valuable alternative to explore with your healthcare team.

DiabetesWise Strengthens Your Healthcare Team

DiabetesWise should be an essential part of everyone’s healthcare plan who lives with diabetes. Managing diabetes can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to handling prescriptions, devices, and self-advocacy. The nonprofit simplifies this process for individuals managing their diabetes.

Additionally, for healthcare providers who often face understaffing and heavy workloads, DiabetesWise alleviates some of the additional tasks, saving time and reducing the need for extensive research.

During office visits, this service enables both patients with diabetes and their doctors to better understand the most effective management strategies that are covered by insurance. By streamlining various aspects of the diabetes journey, DiabetesWise helps reduce the burden on both patients and providers.