Canadian Healthcare Providers’ Attitudes Towards Automated Insulin Delivery Systems

IntroductionWe aimed to assess the current experience and attitudes towards Commercial and Do-it-yourself (DIY) automated insulin delivery (AID) systems among healthcare providers (HCP) across Canada.MethodsA cross-sectional study was performed through electronic distribution of an anonymous survey to HCP licensed to practice in Canada looking after people with type 1 diabetes (T1D).ResultsResponses included 204 HCP across the multi-disciplinary team; dieticians (32.8%), nurses (31.9%), and endocrinologists (28.4%), looking after adults (51%) and children (23%) mainly in urban areas (85.7%). Respondents reported a median 100-500 patients with T1D per practice, with a median 6-24 current users/practice of Commercial compared to a median 1-5 current users/practice of DIY AID. The majority of HCP (72.7%) were comfortable supporting Commercial AID, whereas only 21.6% reported comfort supporting DIY AID use. A significant, although moderate correlation between HCP experience and comfort was seen; Commercial r=0.57(pConclusionsDespite documented beneficial outcomes, AID systems are not widely used in the management of T1D in Canada. The need for both user and HCP education to improve familiarity with the systems, in addition to clarity in medico-legal guidance, have been identified as gaps, which if addressed, might enable the benefits of AID to be more widely available to people with T1D in Canada.