Medtronic launches mySentry remote glucose monitor

17 January 2012

Minneapolis, USA. Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) has announced FDA approval and US market launch of its mySentry remote glucose monitor.

The monitor is aimed at home use to allow a parent or caregiver to monitor from another room a patient’s MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time Revel System. The remote glucose monitor also marks the launch of a new category of connected care solutions that will provide people with diabetes and their caregivers convenient options to access their diabetes management information.

mySentry allows caregivers to see real-time insulin pump status and glucose trends, as well as hear alerts and alarms, at their bedside while an adult or child with diabetes sleeps in their own room. This could be especially useful for parents, who could be alerted through a predictive alarm in the middle of the night if their child’s glucose levels are falling, allowing them to take action to prevent an episode of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). For a caregiver of someone with type 1 diabetes, night time hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) represents one of their greatest concerns.

The Medtronic mySentry remote glucose monitor

“Many of the parents of our patients wake up a couple of times every night to check their child’s blood sugar level and even that may not be enough to prevent episodes of severe hypoglycemia,” said William Tamborlane, M.D., Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology and Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. “Advances in continuous glucose monitoring, including remote monitoring like mySentry, have given parents an added level of protection from dangerous nighttime hypoglycemia occurring in their sleeping child, as well as a means to improve their quality of life.”

An estimated 75% of all episodes of severe hypoglycemia in children occur at night. By alerting a parent or caregiver to an alarm, mySentry may provide added night time protection.

“We’re excited to bring this new innovation to market that could give caregivers greater peace of mind. The mySentry Remote Glucose Monitor is the first step toward our vision to develop an entire category of Connected Care products that help people more proactively manage their diabetes by making it easier and more convenient to access the wealth of information captured by our integrated insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system,” said Greg Meehan, Vice President and General Manager of the Continuous Glucose Monitoring business at Medtronic.

mySentry is used in conjunction with the MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time Revel System, an insulin pump with built-in continuous glucose monitoring. mySentry can be placed in the bedroom or in any room throughout the house so all important information is just a glance away. mySentry provides flexibility and a wide range of uses including displaying all of the alerts and alarms available on the Paradigm Revel insulin pump: predictive alerts, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) graph, insulin pump battery life, amount of insulin remaining, and time until the next glucose sensor calibration.

Source: Medtronic