Dexcom CEO offers public apology after blood sugar monitor outage

Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer has offered a public apology after a Nov. 29 service outage on its continuous glucose monitors that stopped diabetic patients from receiving alerts if their blood sugar reached dangerous levels. 

In a video posted to the San Diego-based medical devicemaker's YouTube page Dec. 13, Mr. Sayer said: "Everyone at Dexcom is disappointed about what happened. It is not what you expect from us and certainly not what we expect from ourselves. We can and we will do better."

He also said the company discovered the reason for the outage, which took several days to fix. 

Mr. Sayer explained that earlier this year, Dexcom moved its Follow platform — which is what tracks patients' blood sugar levels and sends alerts to users' smartphones — to a new cloud service provider. During the move, the company implemented "new components" that weren't configured for optimal performance. The components failed, Mr. Sayer said, and caused disruptions to the platform's core processes, causing the service outage. 

"Dexcom is working around the clock to ensure this doesn't happen again," Mr. Sayer said. 

He added that the company is working to improve safety communications. Users weren't made aware of the outage until hours after the company discovered it. 

"The hours that passed between the Follow feature going down and our first communication to you were unacceptable," Mr. Sayer said. 

He said the company plans to install an in-app messaging feature that will immediately alert users of any service issues. The company is also making a new page on its website dedicated to giving real-time, 24/7 updates on service functionality, he said.

"Although we now understand the reason why this outage occurred, there are no excuses," Mr. Sayer said. "We intend to regain your trust and keep it."

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