Setting Patients Up for Success: Carbohydrate Counting in SmartGuardTM Auto Mode
As a healthcare provider, you know that carbohydrate counting may help patients living with diabetes achieve their blood glucose goals. However, when asked about their confidence in doing so, patients often admit to feeling less than confident.
A common misconception is that patients using hybrid closed loop therapy must be expert carb counters. We’ve actually learned over the past three years that a generalized understanding of carb counting may be enough to improve post-meal glucose control, since the Auto Basal can usually accommodate for small mismatches in carbohydrates consumed. Medtronic offers two key resources to help patients on hybrid closed loop therapy who are interested in improving their carbohydrate counting skills:
- “The Basics: Diabetes, Insulin Pump Therapy, & Carb Counting” is designed to help patients better understand diabetes, carb counting, and how insulin delivery with their hybrid closed loop system can help them manage their diabetes.
- The StartRight™ program also offers monthly Carb Counting Webinars, led by a team of dietitians and diabetes care & education specialists. These 30-minute virtual classes cover the basics of carb counting, different methods of carbohydrate counting and how to read a Nutrition Facts label as well as advanced carbohydrate counting topics and a quick overview of how carbohydrate counting and insulin pump therapy work. You can register them here.
Improving their carb counting skills may help patients optimize their hybrid closed loop therapy and achieve their glycemic goals!