ADA 2025: Empowering Type 2 Diabetes Patients Through Advanced Glucose Monitoring

Kevin Sayer, CEO of Dexcom, sat down with Pharmacy Times® at the 85th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Chicago, Illinois, to discuss how continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) offer patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) a comprehensive "scoreboard" of their health. These devices provide real-time insights into how medications, meals, and lifestyle choices impact blood sugar levels. Sayer shared that CGM technology reduces diabetes-related stress, improves patient confidence, and can lead to potential cost savings through fewer doctor visits and medication adjustments. Beyond these immediate benefits, CGMs show promise in improving cardiovascular and kidney health outcomes, with ongoing developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology further enhancing their capabilities.

Pharmacy Times: How do continuous glucose monitors generally offer actionable insights for type 2 diabetes management compared to traditional methods?

Kevin Sayer: Well, that's a great question. First, let's go back and see what somebody with type 2 diabetes has now. They might occasionally stick their finger, but you find as you survey those patients, it's not very often. They're making decisions based on being told, Eat less, exercise more, and take your meds, and we'll see how you do. What a CGM provides them with is literally a scoreboard that tells them what their actions do for their diabetes health. They see a big spike because they didn't take their meds. They learn I need to take my meds every day. They see a ridiculous spike because of a bad meal. Maybe that's not the best thing to eat, or maybe I should eat differently. If they eat late at night and they didn't sleep very well, they see their average glucose for that 8-hour period is high. These are insights that are quite easy to deduce over time; we'll provide more, and we have AI feedback. You can ask the system questions and instill now, and we'll enhance that. We just launched a meal featuring G7 whereby we have an AI-based meal identification thing where we can record meals and then match them with your glucose spikes. That'll be valuable for type 2 as well. We'll work on that and add to it over time. Even just glucose numbers, that's way more than they've had before.

Pharmacy Times: What are the most significant benefits of CGM adoption for individuals with type 2 diabetes?

Sayer: The most documented, most significant benefits If you take a look at the trials we've run, first of all, you always see an A1c reduction, because average glucose values go down and A1c follows. But in our studies, we've seen other things. First, they're much more confident and have a better understanding. They have less diabetes stress because they know what's going on in their lives, so there's that intrinsic value. If you really look at the studies we've done before, there's a cost reduction because people go to the doctor less. They have fewer hospitalizations, and their meds oftentimes change because many of these type 2 patients are on multiple prescriptions. When you're on CGM and your average glucose has come down, maybe I don't need that drug anymore. We've seen numerous studies where we've seen outcomes and results like that over time, and there's cardiovascular benefit. We published a study here that talked about people with kidney disease having better outcomes if they're on a CGM. There are a lot of benefits that can come from it as you learn.