A1C

Dexcom G6 sensor and applicator [Image from Dexcom]Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are among the most potent diabetes management tools to emerge in recent decades.

FDA approved the first professional CGM in 1999, and the technology has evolved swiftly since then. Current models beam data via Bluetooth to smartphones (plus the Apple Watch) and the cloud, enabling patients to explore their blood glucose readings in an app or via downloadable PDFs.

“Decades ago, we were still checking urine sugars,” said Dr. Egils Bogdanovics, a Connecticut-based endocrinologist. “In the early 1980s, fingerstick blood glucose monitors came out. That was a big deal — a revolution in diabetes,” Bogdanovics recalled.

But the fingerstick blood glucose monitor provides more of a snapshot than a moving picture. “About 15 years ago, professional continuous glucose monitoring was introduced. Initially, it was just endocrinologists [who used it], and we used it in what we called …