Glucose Management Software Optimizes Subcutaneous Insulin Dosing for Hospitalized Patients With Diabetes

When patients with diabetes enter the hospital, they don’t check their diabetes at the door. Managing diabetes while delivering treatment for other conditions is an added challenge for hospitalized patients where the condition may be either ongoing or a temporary abnormality.

While always important, appropriate glucose management is particularly a concern for patients undergoing medical treatment — critical or not — with the risk of hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia causing an overall decline in condition or negatively impacting disease treatment.

Some non-critical patients with existing diabetes or facing a hyperglycemia event during hospitalization, do not require intensive intravenous glucose dosing. For these patients, precisely administered subcutaneous insulin is the answer.

Subcutaneous dosing in hospital populations can also be administered for a variety of other reasons, including the need to rapidly correct glucose levels for patients on an insulin drip. As critically ill patients who had been receiving intravenous insulin improve and are transitioned to lower acuity settings, they may be transitioned to insulin injections. This change requires close blood sugar monitoring.

In 2011, the Endocrine Society issued in-depth guidelines for managing hypoglycemia in hospitalized patients in non-critical care settings, and most recommendations still stand. In 2014, the American Diabetes Association made similar recommendations for these patients in its Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes publication.

Both of these evidence-based guidelines stress the importance of maintaining target blood sugar levels in patients in all treatment settings and cited subcutaneous injection as the preferred delivery method for non-critical care settings. They also emphasize that throughout any transition, careful monitoring and glycemic control is key.

Today, using software to calculate the appropriate dose for subcutaneous insulin delivery is available with EndoTool SubQ. Sophisticated platforms will determine appropriate basal/bolus and corrective subcutaneous insulin dosing recommendations using predictive mathematical modeling. Fine-tuned to the patient’s current needs and based on a history of their insulin metabolism, injections are administered by caregivers at the bedside. Dose recommendations can be adjusted for consistency with hospital internal guidelines and compliance requirements.

As diabetes rates continue to rise and increase the need for insulin therapy, EndoTool SubQ fulfills this necessity by eliminating guesswork and bringing new scientific rigor to blood sugar control in the inpatient setting.