Blood glucose monitoring technology has evolved since the test strip. Now there are electrochemical
sensors being developed that employ a two or three electrode system and are convenient to use.
(Vashist, Zheng, Al-Rubeaan, Luong, & Sheu, 2011).
The Abbott company has been a pioneer in diabetes monitoring systems. They are starting to roll out a
new glucose monitoring system in select markets and should be worldwide in the near future. The
FreeStyle® Libre Pro Flash Glucose Monitoring System allows doctors to get comprehensive glucose
data they need for making better treatment decisions. The sensor continuously monitors glucose data
every 15 minutes to construct a complete glycemic profile. The doctor downloads the glucose results
from the sensor.
Libre’s appearance in the Freestyle pipeline follows Abbott’s long commitment toward out-of-the-box calibration and this author believes it serves as an important proof of concept toward their next generation continuous glucose sensors. (I used their gen1 Freestyle Navigator CGMS for three years and was a big fan.) Our hope here is that Libre paves the way for continued progress in CGM technology from the company.
While Abbott has been tight-lipped about progress to bring Libre to the United States, we do know that the Libre Pro has been submitted to the FDA for potential launch in 2016. The Pro version is meant to be used by health care providers to collect glucose data – which is blinded to the patient – for analysis and treatment changes and would have an easier pathway for reimbursement than the consumer version.
