NICE and NHS England leads the way to improve diabetes care with access to continuous glucose monitoring for people with type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes care (T1D) management is complex and there is clear evidence that access to diabetes technologies has the potential to improve glycaemic management, quality of life and to prevent long-term diabetes complications. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to date has been shown to improve the management of T1D. Real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) and intermittently scanned glucose monitoring systems (isCGM) are new diabetes technologies that use a device inserted subcutaneously to measure interstitial glucose levels rather than capillary blood glucose from conventional finger pricks. While rtCGM provides a continuous real-time display of interstitial glucose, isCGM only displays the interstitial glucose level when scanned over the device. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines provides guidance on the quality of healthcare. Therefore, this commentary discusses new NICE guidance and NHS initiatives to widen access of CGM to improve diabetes care.