Continued Home Insulin Pump Use Proves Safe for Children in Hospitals
Research By: Sarah Lawson, MD
Post Date: June 6, 2024 | Publish Date: Feb. 5, 2024
Study led by experts at Cincinnati Children’s finds that family-managed insulin pumps outperform hospital-provided injections across a wide range of care teams and settings
A study of more than 2,700 children who were hospitalized for various reasons while living with insulin-dependent diabetes demonstrates that family-managed insulin pumps can safely control blood glucose levels without the need for hospital-provided insulin injections.
In many ways the findings, published in February 2024 in JAMA Network Open, confirm what some hospital care teams have already experienced in recent years. But the researchers say the data from the single-center study is robust enough that it can be applied to many other hospitals despite differing patient populations and approaches to care.
“Home insulin pump use is safe and should be considered in most non–intensive care unit admissions,” says study senior author Sarah Lawson, MD, who serves as hospital insulin safety officer at Cincinnati Children’s.
The study tracked outcomes from six years of patient admissions, excluding admissions to intensive care and psychiatric inpatient units.
Cincinnati Children’s co-authors included Jodi Owens, BSN, and Michelle Lawrence, RN, Division of Endocrinology; Joshua Courter, PharmD, Division of Pharmacy; Christine Schuler, MD, MPH, Division of Hospital Medicine; and Lindsey Hornung, MS, Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology.
| Original title: | Home Insulin Pump Use in Hospitalized Children With Type 1 Diabetes |
| Published in: | JAMA Network Open |
| Publish date: | Feb. 5, 2024 |
Research By
As a pediatric endocrinologist, I have a special interest in neuro-oncology, which pertains to the endocrine needs of patients who have cancers of the brain or spinal cord.
