Ep 89: Dexcom G7 Sensor, The 15-Day Sensor, and What to Expect from G8 with CEO Jake Leach
In this episode you will explore:
- Early Dexcom Days & STS 3-Day: How Dexcom pivoted from implantable sensors to disposable subcutaneous CGMs and what the earliest systems were really like.
- Blinded vs Real-Time CGM: The ethics debate, safety implications, and studies proving real-time data improves time in range and reduces hypoglycemia.
- Seven Plus, G4 & G5: Major accuracy improvements, longer wear times, and the move to smartphone-based monitoring.
- G6 & Auto-Applicators: Eliminating mandatory calibrations and making sensor insertion faster and easier.
- G7 Wins & Growing Pains: Reduced size, faster warm-up, early reliability challenges, and how Dexcom addressed manufacturing and support issues.
- 15-Day Wear & Smart Basal: Extended wear life and CGM-guided basal insulin titration for type 2 diabetes.
- G8 & Multi-Analyte Sensing: A preview of Dexcom’s next-generation platform measuring glucose plus ketones and other markers.
- AI Food Logging & Smarter Care: Photo-based meal tracking and pairing nutrition data with glucose trends.
- Access & Affordability: Expanding CGM access globally and using data to reshape how diabetes care is delivered.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
Continuous glucose monitoring didn’t start as sleek apps and tiny sensors — it began with chunky receivers, short wear times, and a lot of skepticism. In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Pettus and Dr. Steve Edelman sit down with Dexcom CEO and original sensor engineer Jake Leach to trace the evolution of CGM from those early “Tylenol-shaped” receivers and repurposed pagers to today’s G7 system and beyond.
They walk through the major turning points: abandoning long-term implants for subcutaneous sensors, proving that real-time CGM meaningfully improves time in range and safety, and pushing back against old-school thinking that insisted patients shouldn’t see their own data. From STS 3-Day to Seven Plus, G4, G5, G6, and now G7, Dr. Edelman, Dr. Pettus, and Jake Leach break down what each generation added — better accuracy, easier insertion, smartphone and cloud connectivity, and integration with pumps and AID systems.
Most importantly, Dr. Edelman, Dr. Pettus, and Dexcom CEO Jake Leach, focus on what’s coming next and what it means for people living with diabetes today: the 15 day Dexcom G7 sensor, Smart Basal insulin titration for people with type 2 diabetes, AI-powered food logging, and the upcoming G8 platform designed to measure multiple analytes (glucose plus ketones and more) — all while pushing toward broader access and affordability.
I think that everyone who uses any kind of CGM should view this video. I worked in R&D electronic product development in the 1970s and hearing mr Leach talk about the history of developing the Dexcom CGMs, I could imagine the brain storming sessions where ideas are flung out – some stick some don’t.
I think of CGM technology as being much more complicated than the problems we dealt with in electro/mechanicall devices. CGMs have the added problems that come from biochemistry and the responses of the body to foreign substances in and on the slkin.
Repurposing a pager case is taking a page out of Star Trek TOS props, but I remember that my company years ago that was developling an electrostatic printer plotter leased a Zerox copier 9couldn’t buy them). We took it apart to learn the method Zeroxx used to charge the paper, distribute the toner and to set it. We had to be careful to get it back in working order to return to Zerox.
Thanks for giving us this podcast.
Cool story! And yes, we’re grateful for all the big brains who work in the development (and advancement) of diabetes devices!