Things to know about Validic- Dexcom Integration

This article pertains to: Inform (v2)

The Validic Inform API suports Dexcom CGM data as cgm, or high-frequency data. But you already knew that.

What you may not know is that the implementation of the Dexcom cgm data includes some things that are worth calling out to ensure that you are properly capturing all possible data for your patients.

Regional Servers

The Inform Dexcom integration works with the Dexcom US server (for those Dexcom users located in the United States) and the Dexcom EU server (for those Dexcom users that are located in much of the rest of the world, except for Singapore and Japan).

The Inform Dexcom integration defaults to using the Dexcom US server since the majority of our clients and users are US-based. Any user without a timezone in their Validic user profile will be assumed to be a US user.

A non-US user will receive a marketplace error if they attempt to authorize data sharing when a non-US timezone has not been specified in their Validic user profile.

To use the Dexcom EU server, a non-US timezone must be specified in each user’s Validic user profile.

Specifying a non-US timezone in the user profile will direct the user to the Dexcom EU server for authorization and data syncing.

Therefore, if you intend to use the Dexcom EU server, you must have Dexcom EU API credentials from Dexcom AND you must specify a non-US timezone when provisioning users in Inform. Any non-US users that are already provisioned in Inform must be updated to include the correct non-US timezone.

Historical Data

Validic captures a maximum of 30 days of Dexcom historical data. This would be the 30 days prior to the Dexcom user first syncing to Validic. While Dexcom may be able to have more than 30 days of historical data, Validic chose to only pull in 30 days due to the sheer volume of cgm data that would have to be captured, stored, and then made available in the Inform API.

Getting ongoing data from Dexcom

As noted on this page, High-Frequency Data , Validic is getting the CGM data from Dexcom in 5 minute intervals via hourly data pulls. Each new hourly pull of data from Dexcom retrieves all data for the last 3 UTC days.

Because of the 1 hour delay that Dexcom has on the CGM data, this means that CGM records will include the readings from up to the previous hour. For example, at 10 am UTC the payload would include the readings from midnight UTC up to 9 am UTC.

Duplicate Data

If a patient fully disconnects Dexcom from their Validic user and then reconnects that same user within 30 days, it is highly likely that the data pulled in upon reconnection will include duplicate data that you have already received. You can use the Validic "id" and "checksum" to check for data you may have already consumed. You would want to check the "time" and "value" pairs of the CGM records to check for possible duplicates.

Timezones

For more specifics on time handling for Dexcom cgm, please see the article: https://help.validic.com/space/VCS/4272259073/Dexcom+Time+Representations

Scenarios that Dexcom data wouldn’t be available in their cloud

If the data isn’t available in the Dexcom API the Validic system wouldn’t be able to capture with our scheduled jobs

• Sensor can be flaky due to nearing time to change

• The sensor is dead and needs to be changed

  • The Dexcom G6 and G7 sensors can be worn for up to 10 days, with the G7 also having a 12-hour grace period at the end.

• Bad sensor placement

  • Placed in a part of the body that doesn’t have enough fat - easily possible on an underweight patient. More common on younger and older patients.

• Adhesive failure. People who are active, get sweaty, swim, etc. may have problems with the adhesive on the sensor breaking down sooner than the expected timeframe (the sensor is good for 10 days so the adhesive needs to last that long). When the sensor doesn’t have solid contact there is a potential to get flakey results, no data, bad readings, etc…