Allison interviews Dr. Charles Wang, MD, from Abbott about their Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitor system. It is composed of a small bio wearable device that you place on the back of your upper arm, and it communicates with the Libre mobile app. Together, they continuously measure and record your blood glucose levels, day and night.
The wearable device sensor is painless to apply and can be worn continuously for up to 15 days. About the size of two stacked pennies, it is currently the world’s smallest wearable glucose sensor and can be worn very discreetly.
Using the Libre app, you can check your glucose levels with a quick glance at your smartphone – no finger stick is required. The app will show patterns in your readings to learn how food, activity, and insulin impact your glucose.
Learn more at https://www.freestyle.abbott/
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Transcript of Interview:
Allison: I’m here with Charles Wang from Abbott, and they have an interesting solution to help you manage your glucose intake through an app. Let’s hear what he has to say about it.
Charles: Yeah, so it is an app, but it’s actually also a sensor. It’s called a biowearable. It’s a Libre 3 Plus. I’m wearing one right here, and it’s a tiny little disc about the size of a dime stuck to his arm. It measures your glucose. It’s for people with diabetes. What it does is it measures your glucose values. So here you can see these are my glucose values right here. We have a new feature that’s launching in this app called Libre Assist. What it does is people who have diabetes often are needing to understand what’s going to impact their glucose in the food.
Allison: You’re about to eat some ribs and you need to know, okay, what am I going to need to do to consume that?
Charles: What’s going to happen, exactly. So before you consume it, it’ll give you tips about what to do. For example, if I go here and I click on this button that says Libre Assist.
Allison: So he’s got a fake cheeseburger and fries here on the table and he’s going to take a picture with Libre Assist.
Charles: Take a picture. Here, take a picture. Now it’s analyzing. Luckily, it just takes a few seconds, especially with all the noise in here. I’ve done a bunch of them. So here’s an example, although that one…
Allison: It says it’s minor impact.
Charles: It says minor impact, because it’s already, oh, here we go. It’s ready. So here you see burgers and fries predicted major impact. If I click in here, it knows that it’s predicting that there could be a major impact. It knows that in the burger it has a sesame seed bun, which it shows as orange because there’s a lot of carbohydrate. Beef patty, lettuce, tomato slice, those are all green because they don’t have a lot of carbs. The french fries also have a lot of carbs. Then it gives you tips to try. For example, try to enjoy the burger’s vegetables first because sequencing is actually really important.
Allison: Oh really?
Charles: Yes, so if you sequence protein or vegetables or fat and then you eat the carbs afterwards, it actually helps a lot. Consider swapping the bun or fries for a lower carb option. That’s another piece of advice, or eating protein rich foods with the carb scan help. So that’s the advice it’s giving.
Allison: Really? Why did it say predicted major impact this time, but earlier it said minor? Was that your current readings?
Charles: Yes. So what it does is that once it gives you the predicted impact, it looks at that in the couple hours afterwards to see what your actual impact was. Now, I don’t have diabetes. So what’ll happen is I’m able to modulate that glucose well. So most of the time when I have something, let’s see, where was it, it was here.
Steve: These are based on your readings?
Charles: These are based on my readings. So most of the time I end up having a minor impact because my glucose doesn’t spike the way that someone with diabetes might. So even though it’s predicted major, because this is designed for people with diabetes, the prediction is a major impact. But in the future, let’s say we go two or three hours later, it’s very likely this will say minor impact for me because I don’t have diabetes.
Allison: Okay, but the timing is part of what’s important for everybody, right?
Charles: The timing is part of what’s important for everybody.
Allison: Now, if I put my gin and tonic out here, let’s set that out. What is it going to do with something like that? Does it check alcohol?
Charles: It does check alcohol. We’ll have to see what it says.
Allison: Now, while it’s analyzing, it really should go, “What are you, kidding? You know you can’t drink that. You shouldn’t be drinking that under any circumstances.” But let’s see what it’s going to do.
Charles: We also put in guard rails to kind of make sure that it says things that are appropriate. It always takes a positive tone as well. So we’ll just have to wait a little bit to see what it says. Also, sometimes depending on it, we’ll see, but depending, we can see, is it going to think it’s gin and tonic or is it going to think it’s—
Allison: I think it thought it was sparkling water. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I’m drinking a sparkling water right now. That’s what it is for sure. But right now this is the most challenging network, wifi, cellular, the Bluetooth, nothing works here. So I’m sure that would have worked. This is a really interesting concept and I haven’t heard about your continuous glucose monitor. Yes, and so that’s invasive, right? It’s got a little stick, a little needle?
Charles: It has a very small little tail. It’s actually the width of 3 hairs.
Allison: Wow
Charles: So it’s not a needle but that’s in your interstitial fluid. So it’s measuring the glucose within the interestitial fluid and it’s worn as you said on the back of the arm.
Allison:Doesn’t look like it bothers you at all.
Steve: How often would you have to change that?
Charles: Fifteen days. Fifteen days.
Allison: That’s not bad. So you can shower with it and everything.
Charles: Exactly. So you can shower with it and everything.
Allison:I feel like we’re getting closer to solving this, but every one of these is a better step towards helping people with diabetes and a lot of people with blood sugar problems. So this is fantastic. So if people wanted to look into Abbott and the continuous glucose monitor, and this app is called the Libre app?
Charles: The Libre app. And this feature is called the Libre Assist feature inside the Libre app.
Allison:Okay, but you need the glucose monitor to do it.
Charles: You need the glucose monitor, although if you don’t have the glucose monitor, you can actually try the food prediction. But it doesn’t give you the actual impact at the end. Because you’re not wearing a sensor.
Allison:Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Well, that’s very good. Thank you very much. And people can find this at Abbott.com. It’s a b b o t t.com. Thank you very much.
Charles: At Abbott.com, yep. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.