Analysis of patient satisfaction with a prefilled insulin injection device in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes

In this issue of Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, Hancu and colleagues present an observational 6-8-week Pan-European and Canadian prospective survey on patient satisfaction with a prefilled insulin injection device, the SoloSTAR pen device, in patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes (n = 6542). The SoloSTAR pen is one of several up-to-date insulin pens of high quality and characteristics that fit many of our patients with diabetes. The mainly excellent-good votes of the participants for the SoloSTAR are not surprising, as we have seen continuous improvements with prefilled pens, such as the SoloSTAR device. Several years ago, patients as well as health care providers found considerable differences between the available pen options. Nowadays, as almost all pen providers have clearly improved their products, the differences are much smaller; we are closer to a "perfect" prefilled pen device. Nevertheless, there is a need for more randomized controlled trials, ideally sponsored not by just one manufacturer, to be able to make clear statements toward different pen device aspects (e.g., accuracy of dosing, adherence to therapy, ease of use, and patient satisfaction). An additional handicap is the difficulty to get blinded study designs.