I wear a continuous glucose monitor. That's a readout on my phone of what my blood sugar is. It's high because I was running late due to traffic and I'm stressed out. This monitors me all the time. If I start to go low, which can happen to many people with type 1 in the night and they might not wake up, it will start alarming me audibly. If I don't respond and tell it that I'm conscious, I'm aware and I'm treating my low blood sugar, it will start pinging my husband's phone so that he'll wake up and save my life.
I cannot overstate the criticality of this for parents of children with type 1 diabetes who are being counselled now, when their child is diagnosed, that they have to get up at least once, if not two or three times in the night, just to make sure that their child is still alive. Imagine the terror they feel all the time; whereas if they had these kinds of devices, that would allow them to sleep knowing that the technology will tell them if their child is in jeopardy of going into a coma, and they can get up and act.
It is not for all five million people in Canada with diabetes. That would be maybe overkill for many, but for people with type 1, it is almost essential. I couldn't manage without it.