A landmark study that showed the finger prick blood test is unnecessary for most people with type 2 diabetes is featured in the NY Times article “A Diabetes Home Test Can Be a Waste of Time and Money.”
Research by Laura Young, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in endocrinology, and Katrina Donahue, MD, MPH, professor and vice-chair of research in the department of family medicine, are featured in a New York Times article that recognizes routine glucose monitoring may be unnecessary for people with Type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin.
Published two years ago in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study took place in 15 primary care practices in North Carolina and was the first large pragmatic trial examining glucose monitoring in the United States. The author of the article recognizes the timeframe of one year as an “impressive length for a study like this” that showed “no measurable differences in how patients fared, whether they check blood sugar or not.”
Last year, Young and Donahue were awarded $1.3 million to implement their findings across the country. The PCORI Dissemination and Implementation project titled “Rethink the Strip: De-adoption of Glucose Monitoring for Non-Insulin Treated Type 2 Diabetes in Primary Care” will put their discovery into practice. An article about this award can be found here.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funds studies that help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare decisions.