Using Technology to Improve Diabetes Care in Hospital: The Challenge and the Opportunity

The past 10 years have seen a revolution in technology improving the lives of people with diabetes. This has implications for diabetes care in hospitalized inpatients. These technological developments have the potential to significantly improve the care of people with diabetes in hospital. Combining point of care glucose monitoring, electronic prescribing, electronic observations with electronic referral, and electronic health records allow teams to daily oversee the whole hospital population. To make the most of these tools as well as developing the use of pumps and glucose sensors in hospital, the diabetes team needs to work in new ways. To date, very little work has described how these should be combined. We describe how this technology can be combined to improve diabetes care in hospital.

Automated summary

The past decade has witnessed a technological revolution that has greatly improved the lives of individuals with diabetes, and this progress also has significant implications for diabetes care within the hospital setting. Technological advancements, including point of care glucose monitoring, electronic prescribing, electronic observations, electronic referral, and electronic health records, offer the potential to enhance diabetes care for inpatients. However, the integration of these tools, as well as the use of pumps and glucose sensors in a hospital setting, requires a novel approach from the diabetes care team. Limited work has been done to explore the combination of these technologies. In this article, we describe how these technologies can be combined to optimize diabetes care in the hospital.