Trang Ly, MBBS, FRACP, PhD: Integrative Technology in Diabetes Management

Trang Ly, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, the senior vice president and medical director at Insulet Corp., sat with MD Mag at the American Diabetes Association's 78th Annual Scientific Session in Orlando, Florida, to talk about the importance of creating continuous glucose monitoring systems that streamline things for the patient, like the Omnipod DASH, which was presented at the conference.

In a time where data sharing and technology have made headway into the medical space, keeping devices as simple and easy to use as possible is important. This is especially true for patients with diabetes, as they—and their clinicians—face a heavy burden of daily management of symptoms and glucose levels.

Ly emphasized that making the process easier for patients is what ensures that patients properly adhere to prescribed treatments that can help manage their condition. The better the patient understands how to use their monitoring device, the more likely they are to actually use it. The first step, she said, is to ensure that the clinicians are aware of these new technologies.

“For our doctors, really the huge benefit is the cloud-to-cloud integration,” she said. “Patients don't have to physically upload their pumps to a device that has outdated software. Clinicians don't have to physically connect it up to a transmitter. The data goes straight up to the cloud and there's cloud-to-cloud integration with Glooko for intellect-provided glucose, so that physicians can see this in their office remotely.”

Trang Ly, MBBS, FRACP, PhD:

People don't use devices because they're overly complicated or [because] people feel unsafe using them. As a clinician, we prescribe drugs or devices that people don't use because they're scared of it, or they don't take their medication because they're worried about it.

Another feature that I would say is really key with Omnipod is the integrative food library. We have calorie-keen food library, a database of over 80,000 branded and unbranded foods, where patients can go and look up their food. It shows them the carbohydrate content, which can be added directly into the bolus calculator, and figures out how much insulin they need for [them].

We teach patients how to carb-count, but we don't give them tools to make their lives easier. Omnipod DASH has that food library within the bolus calculator so that patients can use it every day, and it's easily accessible. [Those] are the types of benefits that I would say really help guide our patients to make those decisions every day as a seamless part of their lives.

This is the first insulin pump with Bluetooth technology and Wi-Fi connectivity as well. It allows for these digital applications and the idea of having integrated, seamless data uploading is a significant advance in diabetes technology today. We're excited to be the first to have this.

Transcript edited for clarity.

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