I have often seen four-wheel drive vehicles in accidents during times of cold weather and ice in the New York area where I live. The reason is simple. In sand and snow a four-wheel drive vehicle is ions ahead of the crowd but when it comes to ice, it will matter little when you start to slide.
There is a false sense of security to the driver who is unaware that ice is ice and it is dang slippery with whatever you are driving. Not too unlike much of the technology we have today to manage diabetes.
No matter how good the technology is, or becomes, it will always only be as good as the person who is using these tools. In as much as the AP, Bionic Pancreas, closed loop system all are in capturing our imagination of managing diabetes; it’s a false sense of security to ever thing that managing diabetes will be done ‘completely on its own’ with no help from ‘the driver’.
The same with the insulin pump and CGMs. Nothing will manage diabetes for you better than YOU! Do NOT MISUNDERSTAND me as I love technology and these tools all surely help us with exponential understanding to have better outcomes on the day-to-day management for our kids and all PWDs. But it’s not uncommon to find those who start using these tools to also have their A1C rise because the user takes their eye off of their own responsibility when it comes to actually managing their diabetes.
The message is a simple one today. Technology is great but at the end of the day it will always come down to how these great tools get used. Never think it will be done for you……it won’t. Food for thought.
I am a diabetes dad.
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