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There is 3 bar charts showing customers rate of satisfaction towards this system.

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A flash glucose monitoring system measures your sugar (glucose) levels continuously throughout the day.

It can help you and your diabetes team see:

if your sugar levels are going up or down

how your sugar levels change over time

the past 8 hours so you can see what happens to your levels when you sleep at night

Flash does not actually measure your blood sugar levels. It measures the amount of sugar in the fluid under your skin, called interstitial fluid.

Interstitial fluid sugar readings are a few minutes behind your blood sugar levels. This means you'll still need to do finger-prick checks every now and then.

The measurements can help you and your diabetes team make decisions about your treatment and any adjustments you need to make.

A flash system is made up of:

a sensor you stick to your arm (about the size of a £2 coin)

a reader - a small device you use to scan the sensor to see your sugar levels

You can also use a smartphone app to scan the sensor.

Sensors usually last for 14 days.

You still need to do some finger-prick tests, particularly when you drive or have a hypo.

Unlike a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system, flash does not have an alarm for hypo or hyper warnings.

With a CGM, your sugar levels are always visible on the screen of your receiver. With flash, you use the reader to scan the sensor when you want to see your levels.

How to get a flash system

The only flash system available is the Abbott Freestyle Libre.

Getting a flash system on the NHS

As of November 2017, the Freestyle Libre is available on the NHS in some areas (depending on local approval).

You must meet certain criteria to get it on prescription, such as testing your blood glucose more than 8 times a day and having disabling hypos.

Ask your diabetes team if it's available where you live. Access is different around the UK.

Diabetes UK has more about flash glucose monitoring systems.

You can buy a flash system yourself

As a rough guide, it costs around:

£150 for a starter pack (reader and 2 sensors)

£50 for a sensor

£50 for a reader

Speak to your diabetes team if you're thinking of buying a Freestyle Libre.

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Type 1 diabetes - Flash monitoring (Freestyle Libre)

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A flash glucose monitoring system measures your sugar (glucose) levels continuously throughout the day. It can help you and your diabetes team see: if your sugar levels are going up or down how your sugar levels change over time the past 8 hours so you can see what happens to your levels when you sleep at night Flash does not actually measure your blood sugar levels.

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Hannah Rahim
Joseph Ambrose
Balqees Said
Daniel Rezaie
Souad Talukder

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1. We will communicate through social media such as WhatsApp and Snapchat as this is easy for everyone and we all check these regularly
2. If unable to do work for a certain deadline, make sure the rest of the group is informed so we do not fall behind
3. We need to compromise so that everyone has equal workloads
4. We need to time-manage to ensure we do not fall back on our deadlines.

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Project M2 Task planning sheet_ online (2)

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Effect of Flash Glucose Monitoring on Glycemic Control, Hypoglycemia, Diabetes-Related Distress, and Resource Utilization in the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists:

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Effect of Flash Glucose Monitoring on Glycemic Control, Hypoglycemia, Diabetes-Related Distress, and Resource Utilization in the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists:

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Effects of real-time continuous glucose monitoring in type 1 diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials:

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Effects of real-time continuous glucose monitoring in type 1 diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials:

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Everyone to read NHS article so we all understand the topic.
Everyone must each read an article that we allocated to make and make notes on this article, making sure we have picked out important information.

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https://drc.bmj.com/content/8/1/e001092

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK476439/

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This flash monitoring system has been made available since 2017. It measures sugar levels within the skin's fluid. This system is built of sensor which is stuck to the skin and through the use of a reader may be scanned therefore enabling us to read the sugar levels.

Advantage:
Through the use of a smartphone app sensor may be scanned.

Disadvantages:
Flash doesn't have alarm to demonstrate the hypo/hyper warning.
Not very cheap around 150 to get a starter pack.

-Souad

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The ability to measure and monitor glucose in diabetic patients allows for more effective glycemic control, management and treatment.  Therefore, there has always been a search for efficient ways to do this. Urine testing was the first technique used from the mid-1800s. The first self-monitoring glucose meter was invented in the 1970s. It was inaccurate and required quite a large blood sample at first. However, by the 1980s, the Dextrostix was precise and cheap enough to successfully be integrated into diabetes treatment as a form of self-monitoring using finger-pricking. (Hirsch, 2018, p. 1) Using a blood sample from finger-pricking  became the common technique for monitoring glucose. Flash Glucose monitoring (FGM) is an extremely recent improvement in the industry. Abbot Diabetes Care introduced the first FGM device, the FreeStyle Libre, in 2014. Since then, they have improved their device further. The first generation sensors could only be worn for 10 days but the second generation sensors last 14 days. The second generation is also more accurate, due to it having a lower mean absolute relative difference. (Klimek M. et al. 2019. p. 225)

1 Hirsch, I.B. 2018. Role Of Continuous Glucose Monitoring In Diabetes Treatment. Arlington, VA. American Diabetes Association.

2 (Klimek M. et al. 2019. History of glucose monitoring: past, present, future. Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. Accessed at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338397001_History_of_glucose_monitoring_past_present_future (accessed 13/10/2020)

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This is an image showing the Flash Glucose system. How it’s used.

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Rather than measuring glucose levels in the blood, as previous glucose monitoring systems did, Flash Glucose Monitoring (FGM) measures the glucoses levels in the interstitial fluid, the fluid surrounding cells. (Palylyk-Colwell, E. and Ford, C. (2016). Flash Glucose Monitoring System for Diabetes. [online] PubMed.).
This new treatment is carried out by attaching a small, circular sensor to the patients arm, this sensor is connected to a 'reader' that displays the patients glucose levels at a given time. FGM allows the patient to easily carry this process out quickly numerous times throughout the day to provide continuous information about the patients glucose activities. Another advantage of this is that the patient can correspond their glucose levels with certain activities, for example, if eating certain foods leads to a rise in their glucose level it helps them to avoid this in future. In order to qualify for FGM a patient must meet certain requirements, such as needing to check glucose levels at least 8 times a day  (Type 1 diabetes - Flash monitoring (Freestyle Libre)
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/flash-monitoring-freestyle-libre/).

Joe

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The use of the flash monitoring system has enabled those with diabetes, hyperglycemia and other blood sugar diseases quick access to the amount of sugar in their interstitial fluid.  And although the Flash Glucose Monitoring system is more expensive than simply just using the finger prick device, as more research goes into the development of Flash Glucose monitoring, it's efficiency in reading interstitial fluid sugar levels means that patients do not need to use the finger pricking method several times a day, a often painful process which can be minimized with the use of the Flash monitoring system

- Balqees