Offering Choices for Insulin Delivery to Patients with Diabetes

Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, CDCES: Is there any advice that you have for clinicians that are interested in exploring noninvasive insulin delivery methods?

Natalie Bellini, DNP, FNP-BC: We want clinicians to understand all of the options for patients. Patients deserve a clinician who offers choice. In the past, a lot of people would just say, “This is what I’m comfortable with, and this is what I want you to use,” but I want you as a clinician to think about your relative or someone who might want to do it differently, and why. You have to do your research and say, “I really want to learn more,” and people are available who will come in. I have a medical liaison who I work with who has helped me when we were worried about things like the lung function tests, that I can’t get this into my practice. She said, “Natalie, stop. This is easy, think about it this way,” and I thought, now I can do this. They’re there to help you take your barriers down. Most of the barriers are our fear of change, and it worked out just fine. My thought is to always just reach out.

Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, CDCES: I agree with you. Connecting with companies, medical science liaisons, and sales representatives can also help with any cost coverage issues, too. Because usually there are pathways, but it sometimes it’s just about additional learning in your area and some of the specifics with that. Also, I want to encourage people to think about the burden with injections for people. Think about carrying around needles, worrying about needle sticks, and having to have alcohol for disinfection and the potential for blood, especially as people are out in restaurants, or just out and about. It can be quite inconvenient. It’s not surprising that there is some pushback, especially in type 2 diabetes where people are saying, “No, I don’t think I need this. I don’t need mealtime insulin.” I encourage people to think about the available options [and to] take advantage of the tools we mentioned, such as the DiabetesWise professionals as well as Danatech to learn for yourself and try to get demos. The way I learn best is to try to demo everything—not just inhaled insulin, but all of the insulin delivery options. Talk to the respective companies in your area. Try to play around with it so you can show patients in your clinic as well. With that, thank you so much for this rich and informative discussion today. Thanks to our viewing audience for tuning in. If you enjoyed the content, please subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive upcoming Peers and Perspectives and other great content right in your inbox.

Transcript edited for clarity