Nightscout New Zealand is a non-profit advocacy group that has been formed to support people with type one diabetes in New Zealand to access and implement new technologies to improve glycaemic control and quality of life.
Intro
Diabetes technologies have rapidly developed in recent years, yet New Zealand’s health care system has been slow to fund diabetes technologies and NZ vendors sell many of these technologies to patients at prices far in excess of vendors in comparable countries such as Australia. Thus, relatively few New Zealanders with T1D are currently able to benefit from technologies such as continuous glucose monitoring and artificial pancreas systems. Nightscout New Zealand advocates for life-changing technologies being made available to New Zealanders living with type one diabetes as quickly as possible.
In particular, Nightscout New Zealand recognizes the benefits that are offered by the innovations made by the #WeAreNotWaiting movement, which have made open-source software innovations freely available people living with type one diabetes. This includes the Nightscout project, a cloud-based system for viewing CGM data remotely in real time, CGM apps such as Xdrip+ and Spike, third party NFC-Bluetooth converters that turn a Freestyle Libre into a CGM, and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Artificial Pancreas Systems (APS), OpenAPS, Loop, and AndroidAPS.
Nightscout New Zealand’s mission is to act as an advocacy and education organisation to support people with type one diabetes in New Zealand to access and implement new technologies in order to improve glycaemic control and quality of life.
We have a wide scope and are focused on patient-centred solutions. All founding committee members are people living with type one diabetes who have personally benefited from being early adopters of diabetes technologies. Too few New Zealanders with type one diabetes currently have access to these technologies and we are concerned that the New Zealand health care system will continue to be slow to fund new diabetes technologies.
We believe that people with type one diabetes deserve access to transformative technologies and that the cost to the health care system of funding them will be offset by reductions in hospital admissions and diabetes-related complications.
At our core we will be advocating for:
Funded access to CGM and FGM for every person with T1D
Data from funded diabetes devices being readily accessible to patients so they can share this with whanau, supporters and health care professionals.
Funding of an accurate Blood Glucose meter (such as the Bayer Contour Next One) to ensure CGM readings and SMBG readings are as accurate as possible.
Funding of Modern and Innovative insulin for every person with T1D.
Funding of approved commercial Artificial Pancreas Systems, particularly, interoperable systems.
Recognition for the value of peer-to-peer learning and support as part of the model of diabetes care in New Zealand.
Given that funding changes may take time to achieve, we do not believe that people with diabetes should wait for these developments to occur. Thus we also advocate for—and support people with T1D use of—open-source Do-It-Yourself (DIY) diabetes technologies, specifically:
DIY CGM technologies such as Nightscout, Spike, Xdrip+ and bluetooth converters for FGM.
DIY artificial pancreas technologies such as OpenAPS, AndroidAPS and Loop.
Although DIY technologies do not currently have regulatory approval, multiple observational studies of OpenAPS and AndroidAPS, demonstrate that DIY technologies are more effective and safer than existing standards of care. Internationally, DIY diabetes technologies are increasingly recognised as having a positive, disruptive and transformational influence on diabetes care and are now a regular feature at international diabetes conferences.
About
Nightscout New Zealand is an advocacy and education group whose aim is to promote the use of emerging technologies for managing type one diabetes. As a group formed by those who have benefited from open-source technologies developed by #WeAreNotWaiting patient innovation movement, we believe it is important to advocate for improved funding and access to diabetes technologies and educate clinicians and people with type one diabetes about the value of DIY innovations.
Nightscout New Zealand has been formed under the umbrella of the Nightscout Foundation (USA). However, as a NZ-based non-profit organization, we retain all funds for use within New Zealand.
Contact
If you are a medical professional wanting to learn more about patient-centred diabetes technologies, please contact us at:
If you are a person with diabetes, or a supporter of a person with diabetes, please join our facebook page to learn more at the link below.
