Pascal's wager: combining continuous glucose monitoring and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion.
Pascal's Wager is a suggestion posed by the French Philosopher, Blaise Pascal, that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager that God exists because he or she has everything to gain and nothing to lose. In the area of consideration here, the optimum experimental trial of the combined use of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion and real-time continuous glucose monitoring in free-living individuals with type 1 diabetes providing rock-solid evidence of clinical benefit has not been performed. Nevertheless, there is considerable enthusiasm for combining the technologies among healthcare professionals, patients, and manufacturers based on the belief that this approach to diabetes care must be beneficial beyond the available evidence (i.e., reason).
Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education, Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, Royal Bournemouth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Bournemouth, UK. david.kerr@rbch.nhs.uk
David
D
Kerr
Tolu
T
Olateju
D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D007328:Insulin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007332:Insulin Infusion Systems; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013672:Technology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends
D001786:Blood Glucose; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D007328:Insulin