Provider Diabetes Diagnosis Predicts Prescribing Bias towards Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices

Methods: The EMR was queried to identify patients with type 1 diabetes identified by ICD 10 codes (E10.xx) seen in the diabetes clinic from January 2019 to Dec 2019. We defined use of a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) as documentation of ICD-10 code Z96.49 (presence of other endocrine implant) or documentation of CGM start in the EMR's health manager, the two ways staff identified CGM use in 2019. Statistical analysis performed using SAS 9.4 (R). Results: In 2019, we analyzed our baseline CGM prescribing data in preparation for an equity project. We found that pediatric providers (MD and CRNP) who carried a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes were prescribing these devices to patients at a higher rate (25.41%) than those without diabetes (14.72%) at UAB. If your diabetes provider had diabetes: your odds of having a CGM prescribed were 1.7 (CI: 1.4-2.1) times higher than if your provider did not have diabetes (p<0.0001). At the time, 6 of our 22 providers had T1D. Discussion: One may postulate that familiarity with the disease and its impact on everyday life as well as general experience with the use of these devices were major contributors to the prescribing bias. We discussed this data with our division and distributed it to providers via email in an effort to improve overall rates of CGM use for our patients. Hands on tutorials were also done with our pump nurses to help providers better understand the technology. Disclosure M.L.Scott: None. J.Schmitt: None.