As we continue to learn about ways that Time in Range (TIR) can improve the lives of people with diabetes, diaTribe is working to educate people with diabetes and their providers on the best ways to use this metric. TIR is the percentage of time that a person spends with their glucose levels in a target range. The range will vary depending on the person, but general guidelines suggest starting with a range of 70 to 180 mg/dl.

Created by diaTribe, Abbott, and Novo Nordisk, TIRhub.com is a new online resource for healthcare providers to learn more about TIR and how to use it with their patients. With a slogan of “It’s time for Time in Range,” the TIR Hub highlights clinical guidelines for using this metric and best practices for healthcare providers. 

The website also includes insightful videos from TIR experts, including Dr. Richard Bergenstal (endocrinologist and executive director of the International Diabetes Center) and Dr. Alice Cheng (endocrinologist at Trillium Health Partners and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto), as well as from people with diabetes describing their experiences with TIR.

This can be a valuable resource for people with diabetes who already monitor their TIR or are considering adding this to the measures they follow. We encourage you to share TIRhub.com with your healthcare team to discuss ways to incorporate the metric into your health plan. The website also includes helpful animations like the one below that can help anyone understand TIR and why it’s important. 

Learnings on the TIR Hub

The TIR Hub has several resources to help your healthcare team incorporate TIR into your diabetes care. The learnings on the website cover the following topics. Click the links to learn more.

• What is TIR and why is it important? 

• What are the clinical guidelines for using TIR in diabetes care?

• How do healthcare providers get started and continue to use TIR in their practice?

• How can TIR inform clinical decision-making?

• What are CGMs and how do they support TIR use?

Expert insights

The website also includes valuable insights from diabetes experts Dr. Bergenstal and Dr. Cheng. Dr. Bergenstal describes how healthcare providers can use continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data and the Ambulatory Glucose Profile (AGP) Report to improve their diabetes care.

“You may know that, with all the data coming from CGM devices, that many of the reports are 20 to 30 pages long,” Dr. Bergenstal explains in the video. “But for a busy clinician, or [to make it easier] for a patient to understand, [the International Diabetes Center] thought it was important to boil [this data] down to a single one-page report.” And this became your AGP report.

Watch Dr. Bergenstal explain your AGP report here.

In addition, Dr. Cheng explains why TIR is a valuable metric to use in diabetes care, in addition to A1C.

“I sort of see [A1C] as a high-level measurement,” said Dr. Cheng. “What is does not allow me to do is see the granularity that then allows for a more interesting and useful conversation with my patient.”

“Time in Range, and along with that the Time Below Range, are the two metrics that I have found incredibly important,” she said.

Watch Dr. Cheng talk about TIR and A1C here.

TIRhub.com also includes a conversation with diaTribe’s founder Kelly Close and with Professor Thomas Danne, the director of the Department of General Pediatrics at the “Auf der Bult” Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Hannover Medical School, Germany. Close and Danne discuss the opportunities and challenges of using TIR in diabetes management. 

“We can see Time in Range can really help contextualize A1C,” Close said. “And it helps us see, ‘Maybe I have an A1C that is on the lower side but maybe that is driven by a lot of hypoglycemia.’ All we have to do now is look at our smartphones” to get insights like these.

Stories from people with diabetes

The website features stories from people with diabetes about their experiences with TIR. 

Mary Van Doorn from Dacula, Ga., has type 2 diabetes and has been using a CGM for over three years. “Time in Range makes it possible to plan ahead,” she said. “If I’m going out, if I’m doing something that’s active, if I’m making a food choice, if I’m taking my medicine, I have that real-time data that helps me plan accordingly.”

She also explained that being in range helps her be more present and active with her kids. “I didn’t want to be the mom who could only watch her kids play,” she said. “I wanted to be part of the action.” For her, being in range means getting to do all the things she wants to do with her family.

Lasse Mørck is a jazz musician with type 1 diabetes from Copenhagen, Denmark. After being diagnosed with diabetes at 26, Mørck feared that it would get in the way of his musical ambitions.  

“That is what I want to avoid, more than anything in the world,” he said. With his flash glucose monitor (FGM), Mørck said he learned more about how insulin and food impacted his glucose levels, adding, “That is the experience and knowledge I will use to keep my glucose levels as stable as possible in the future.” 

Using his FGM and TIR, Mørck believes that it’s easier to live a healthy life with diabetes. 

María is from Santander, Spain, and has had type 1 diabetes for three years. María and her son, who was diagnosed six months before her, understand that there are health risks associated with high and low blood sugars. She says that staying in range is important “so that in the future you don’t experience too many problems.” María uses TIR in her and her son’s diabetes management to avoid health complications. “Spending more Time in Range is the best thing for my future,” she said.

Visit TIRhub.com to learn more!