The expert explained the need for uninterrupted Internet access to children with diabetes

Kovalev: glucose monitoring is critically important for the health of children with diabetes

Sun, 01/18/2026 - 02:00

Photo: RIA Novosti/Vitaly Ankov

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Today, Russia uses more than 10 continuous glucose monitoring (NMG) systems that are officially registered in the country. The principle of operation of all of them is similar: a sensor mounted on the child's body measures glucose levels and transmits data directly to his smartphone via Bluetooth. Andrey Kovalev, director of the Association for the Support of People with Diabetes, told Izvestia about this.

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"For the remote monitoring function (when parents or a doctor see the indicators in real time), Internet access is required on the child's device. In this case, the data from the application is transferred to a cloud server, and then displayed in the applications of parents or medical professionals. In the absence of the Internet, data is not sent to the server, and remote monitoring becomes impossible," he explained.

Meanwhile, this remote monitoring is critically important for the safety of children with diabetes, the expert emphasizes. After all, a child, especially of primary school age, is not always able to assess his condition in a timely manner and respond to it correctly.

Today, in a number of regions of Russia, parents of children with diabetes are facing problems in the operation of NMG systems, the editorial interlocutor draws attention to. The main reason for this is interruptions in the operation of the mobile Internet, due to which data on the child's condition stops being received by adults.

The solution to the problem could be the inclusion of services in the white list of the Ministry of Finance. However, as Kovalev recalls, most of the systems currently in use are foreign, and their cloud servers are located outside the Russian Federation.