Endocrine Abstracts

Smart insulin pen technology offers insights into insulin dosing frequency and adherence patterns to assist patients and healthcare professions in treatment planning and diabetes control. We aimed to audit insulin smart pen use and glycaemic outcomes in a cohort of adults with diabetes attending a tertiary level diabetes centre. People with diabetes who were given insulin smart pens (NovoPen 6 or Novopen Echo Plus) in our centre were included in this audit. Clinical information, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), smart pen data, glucose metrics including continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data and self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) data were gathered retrospectively from medical records as well the Glooko and DEXCOM CLARITY online platforms. Data collection was carried out in November and December 2023. Nineteen people were using insulin smart pens in our centre and the majority (n = 18 [94.7%]) using a smart pen for bolus administration of insulin aspart. The median age was 39 years (range 18-67), 12 (63.2%) were female, 17 (89.5%) had type I diabetes mellitus, mean duration of diabetes was 17.6 (±11.4) years and mean HbA1c was 81.4mmol/mol (±25.4). Improvements in time in range (23.5% ±16.5 vs 34.8% ±19.4, P = 0.02); level 2 time above range (47.8% ±21.0 vs 37.4% ±9.5, P = 0.049) and mean glucose (13.8mmol/l ±2.5 vs 12.7 mmol/l ±2.8, P = 0.036) were seen in smart pen users. A trend to improvement in HbA1c was demonstrated with smart pen use (81.4mmol/mol ±25.4 vs 77.7 mmol/mol ±15.6, P = 0.17). Though this is a small cohort, our data is consistent with other studies suggesting improvements in glycaemic metrics with smart insulin pen use. As the use of these connected devices grows, improved awareness, education and resource availability among healthcare providers and patients is required to harness the benefits of this technology.