Diabetes self-management is a careful balance of taking medications, eating well-balanced meals, engaging in physical activity, stress monitoring, and symptom management, among other daily tasks. As certified diabetes educators (CDE), we are all involved in helping our patients balance everything best meet their disease management goals. Pharmacists are also an important part of diabetes self-management education and support (DSME/S), doing so much more than just dispensing medications.

Technology was the tipping point in it all: insulin pumps, glucose meters and continuous glucose monitoring started it all for us. Pattern management is the way to take the numbers and create actions to correct the abnormal and proactively develop a plan to anticipate the future. By looking at these patterns, we determine changes to the treatment plan. Medication, food, physical activity, stress, and illness all contribute to changes in glucose management.