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Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Medical Education: Bridging pre-clinical sciences with the patient experience
Beattie, Caitlin Chin, Cassandra Tarrant, Claudia Burgess, Lee-Anna Clements, Benjamin
Beattie, Caitlin
Chin, Cassandra
Tarrant, Claudia
Burgess, Lee-Anna
Clements, Benjamin
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Abstract
Introduction: Continuous-glucose monitoring (CGM) is a technology used by patients with diabetes to monitor and respond to blood-glucose levels (BGL). Despite proven benefit to patients, providers may not be comfortable prescribing or interpreting data from these devices. Teaching students about CGMs has the potential to increase not only their familiarity with this technology, but also complement their understanding of metabolism and nutrition concepts. This study examined the use of CGM as an educational tool in parallel with a traditional pre-clinical medical curriculum. Methods: For this pilot study, 40 first-year medical-students were provided with Dexcom G7 or Freestyle Libre 3 CGMs to wear for 10 or 14 days, respectively. The devices were supplied by the device manufacturers as an unrestricted educational grant. Students attended a mandatory introduction to CGM led by faculty and were assisted with CGM application. On day 6, students were invited to participate in a focus group discussion with teaching faculty. Participation was voluntary. Results: The five major insights from the student focus group were: 1) health and metabolism concepts such as glucose responses to fasting, stress, and exercise , 2) improved health behaviors such as making healthier or novel food choices, 3) technical issues such as device failures and skin reactions to the adhesives, 4) understanding of the patient experience such as stigma related to wearing a visible device, empathy regarding dependence on a device, and alarm burden, and 5) negative impacts such as anxiety about glucose variability and hyperglycemic readings, phone usage, and preoccupation with the abundance of data. The overall student experience was very positive and deemed a feasible addition to the curriculum. Conclusions: Overall, short-term use of a CGM provided medical students valuable insights into metabolism, nutrition, personal health and patient experiences, while recognizing the emotional and technical burden that can be experienced by a person with diabetes. For future cohorts we seek to improve the program and expand the offering to all eligible and interested students.
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Date
2024-01-01