Ascensia Diabetes Care: We’re the Supportive Type
At Ascensia Diabetes Care, we are excited to be continuing our partnership with JDRF in 2019 by participating in the JDRF One Walk in Morris County, NJ. As a company that is focused only on diabetes, we take great pride in supporting organizations like JDRF that provide vital advocacy, research and help for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). 
Ascensia has a longstanding legacy in diabetes technology, dating back to our time as Miles Laboratories, Ames and Bayer, and this has continued since we established Ascensia three years ago. “We are Only Diabetes” is a company value that we take great pride in saying here at Ascensia. To help us truly live this value, we have worked closely with JDRF by participating in JDRF One Walks, promoting the JDRF PEAK Program and being part of the JDRF Internship Program.
All of these programs are great ways for us to do our part to support people with diabetes, but we are also aware of how much these activities help us. By immersing ourselves in the T1D community, we gain valuable insight about what it is like to live with T1D and where we can do more to help. Talking to individuals with diabetes and collecting their opinions on what they need, ensures that we stay focused on our goal of making their lives easier and better.
Through our associations with JDRF over the years, we have learned many things that have driven us to develop better solutions. JDRF One Walks, as an example, are inspiring for our employees and remind us all of us why we come to work each day.
We are also pleased to have been part of the JDRF Internship Program, having students with T1D work as interns in our company. Through this program we have learned many things, including the resilience of young people with type 1 diabetes. These interns have shown us first hand that they do not let anything hold them back and that they will do what they can in order to live as normal a life as they can. JDRF’s Peak Program is another excellent initiative. It helps to educate people with type 1, parents and caregivers on how to participate in physical activity while safely managing blood glucose. By supporting this, we have learned about some of the challenges that people with type 1 diabetes face related to physical activity.
By working with organizations like JDRF to learn more from people with T1D, we can create solutions that better address their unmet needs. Through years of dedicated research, we are proud to have developed one of the most accurate blood glucose monitoring systems on the market in the CONTOUR® NEXT ONE, which has demonstrated an error margin of only ±8.4%[1].
These insights from the T1D community have led us to develop several unique features that are specifically designed to make the lives of people with diabetes easier. Second-chance-sampling allows users to apply more blood onto a strip if there wasn’t enough blood applied first time. For our CONTOUR®NEXT ONE system, users have 60 seconds to apply more blood, and this feature has the potential to save unnecessary finger pricks and may prevent wasted test strips[2]. The CONTOUR®NEXT ONE also features smartLIGHT technology, where a target range indicator light shows colors based on whether blood glucose readings are above, below or within target range, giving instant feedback to users.
We also have developed the CONTOUR® Diabetes App, which is clinically proven to improve glucose control[3]. It allows you to set reminders, track blood glucose trends and monitor activity that can affect your blood glucose. By offering these features the app has been shown to lead to greater engagement of people with diabetes and reduce the likelihood of hypoglycemia[3]. The app also includes a feature that helps people identify blood glucose trends that could be affecting their diabetes management.
At Ascensia we take great pride in being the supportive type. It is an honor to help create a better life for all those with diabetes and we are proud to continue to support the JDRF in their quest to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and its complications. To learn more about us, visit: www.contournext.com.
Written by a guest author from Ascensia Diabetes Care.