Primary care-initiated CGMs associated with meaningful improvements

YARMOUTH, Maine – Primary care-initiated continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) was associated with significantly greater reductions in hemoglobin A1c levels and lower rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits compared with non-initiation, according to a cohort study published in the JAMA Network. The study was conducted with 8,502 adults with insulin-treated diabetes seen in primary care settings. “In this cohort study of adults with insulin-treated diabetes, initiation of CGM by primary care clinicians was associated with clinically meaningful improvements in HbA1c and significant reductions in recurrent hospitalizations and ED visits,” the study’s authors wrote. “These findings support expanding CGM implementation in primary care settings as a scalable strategy to improve diabetes outcomes and reduce acute care utilization, particularly in underserved populations.” The study was performed at 18 primary care clinics within Montefiore Medical Center, a large safety-net health system in the Bronx, New York. Adults 18 years or older with any insulin-treated diabetes who had at least one primary care visit between Aug. 1, 2022, and Aug. 1, 2025, were included. Patients were excluded if they were uninsured, if they had a CGM prescription in the prior two years, or if their first CGM during follow-up was prescribed outside primary care. At 12 months, HbA1c levels decreased by 0.66 (95% CI, 0.57-0.75) percentage points in patients who initiated CGM vs 0.17 (95% CI, 0.08-0.27) percentage points in those who did not, with a between-group difference of −0.49 (95% CI −0.62 to −0.35) percentage points. CGM initiation was associated with lower risk of recurrent hospitalizations (hazard ratio, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.77-0.98]) and ED visits (hazard ratio, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.74-0.91]).