Aims: To compare the time required for perioperative glucose management using fully automated closed-loop versus standard insulin therapy.
Methods: We performed a time-motion study to quantify the time requirements for perioperative glucose management with fully closed-loop (FCL) and standard insulin therapy applied to theoretical scenarios. Following an analysis of workflows in different periods of perioperative care in elective surgery patients receiving FCL or standard insulin therapy upon hospital admission (pre- and intra-operatively, at the intermediate care unit and general wards), the time of process-specific tasks was measured by shadowing hospital staff. Each task was measured 20 times and its average duration in combination with its frequency according to guidelines was used to calculate the cumulative staff time required for blood glucose management. Cumulative time was calculated for theoretical scenarios consisting of elective minor and major abdominal surgeries (pancreatic surgery and sleeve gastrectomy, respectively) to account for the different care settings and lengths of stay.
Results: The FCL insulin therapy reduced the time required for perioperative glucose management compared to standard insulin therapy, across all assessed care periods and for both perioperative pathways (range 2.1-4.5). For a major abdominal surgery, total time required was 248.5 min using FCL versus 753.9 min using standard insulin therapy. For a minor abdominal surgery, total time required was 68.6 min and 133.2 min for FCL and standard insulin therapy, respectively.
Conclusions: The use of fully automated closed-loop insulin delivery for inpatient glucose management has the potential to alleviate the workload of diabetes management in an environment with adequately trained staff.
Keywords: Diabetes; artificial pancreas; hospital care; inpatients; insulin infusion systems; time-motion studies.
© 2023 The Authors. Diabetic Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Diabetes UK.