This article was an oral presentation at the 15th Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes Conference 2022, Spain, by the diabetes team at Jothydev’s Diabetes Research Centre headed by Dr. Jothydev Kesavadev.

Pricking of fingertips has always been an impediment in periodic blood glucose monitoring. Researchers compared the benefits of Genteel, a vacuum-based lancing device, in patients with diabetes (PWD) in improving the self-monitoring frequency and HbA1c. An open-label, 24-week cross over trial where PWD were matched using propensity score and randomly allocated to GC or CG arm (G- Genteel; C- Conventional). GC exclusively used Genteel for 12 weeks, and then switched to the conventional method of SMBG for additional 12 weeks, and vice versa for CG. A total of 110 patients, including 58 T1D and 52 T2D, were recruited. Both arms were provided with the same glucometer. CG arm used the lancet and lancing device that they were using prior to randomization and GC used Butterfly lancets during the first 3 months. Reduction in HbA1c, %SMBG adherence over 24-weeks and subjective assessment of pain were assessed.

Data from 110 patients (58 T1D and 52 T2D) showed a significant reduction in HbA1c (p< 0.05), improved SMBG adherence in T2D (P< 0.05) and reported reduction in pain (P< 0.05) after using Genteel. A significant number of patients ( p < 0.05 ) also reported that they will continue to use the Genteel lancing device in the future. The study highlights the benefits of using painless lancing devices such as Genteel in reducing HbA1c and pain of finger pricks.