Patrick Burgess, MD: Biggest Challenges Facing Diabetes Patients

As the founder and inventor of EndoTool, Patrick Burgess, MD, has always attempted to find ways to optimize diabetes care in a way that simplifies life for patients.

During the American Diabetes Association 2019 Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA, Burgess, along with hundreds of other physicians, presented his own work and attended presentations from colleagues in the field.

After discussing his work in the impact of late glucose readings, Burgess talked with MD Magazine® about what he felt was the most important discussion, in terms of clinical impact, taking place at this year’s conference and what is the biggest challenge facing diabetes patients.

MD Mag: What is the most important discussion taking place at ADA this year in terms of clinical impact?

Burgess: Clinical impact is the demonstration of all technology that's being directed towards diabetes care. This technology includes monitoring, this technology includes pumping in insulin, this technology includes dosing insulin, finding the right dose. That's what monarch does find the right dose and how that's all going to integrate together to provide the best care for the patient is to be seen and it's interesting to see the interactions the groups that work together, how they work together, and the proposed movement into the future using technology to benefit the patient and what I learned from a meeting early in the session was that, you know, what patients want is easier care. Care that's allows them to have perfect control with less effort so they can lead a more normal life and that makes sense and it's going to be interesting to see how the technology blends together.

MD Mag: What is the biggest challenge facing diabetes patients?

Burgess: The biggest hurdles it seems to me is going to be cost because when I designed the Monarch software my goal was to provide care at a lower cost but a lot of the solutions that are proposed are high tech and they actually increase cost. So, how that's all going to blend together to end up with the best care and who's going to pay for it, if it costs more, is going to be interesting to follow over the next couple of years.