Impact of COVID-19 on Health Economics and Technology in Diabetes Care: Use cases of Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring to Transform Healthcare During a Global Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities and placed tremendous financial pressure on nearly all aspects of the U.S. healthcare system. Diabetes care is an example of the confluence of the pandemic and heightened importance of technology in changing care delivery. It has been estimated the added total direct US medical cost burden due to COVID-19 to range between $160B (20% of the population infected) to $650B (80% of the population infected) over the course of the pandemic. The corresponding range for the population with diabetes is between $16B and $65B, representing between 5% and 20% of overall diabetes expenditure in the US. We examine the evidence to support allocating part of this added spend to infrastructure capabilities to accelerate remote monitoring and management of diabetes.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We reviewed recent, topical literature and Covid-19-related analyses in the public health, health technology and health economics fields in addition to databases and surveys from government sources and the private sector. We summarized findings on use cases for real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) in the community, for telehealth, and in the hospital setting to highlight the successes and challenges of accelerating the adoption of a digital technology out of necessity during the pandemic and beyond.

CONCLUSIONS: One critical and lasting consequence of the pandemic will be the accelerated adoption of digital technology in healthcare delivery. We conclude by discussing ways in which the changes wrought by COVID-19 from a healthcare, policy and economics perspective can add value and are likely to endure post pandemic.