Why this matters now: Almost 40% of inpatients require insulin therapy8. New CMS eCQMs for severe hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia begin January 1, 2026. You need solutions that improve safety, reduce workload, and support reporting without re-architecting your stack or creating a new multi-year project outside of your current focus and industry cybersecurity mandates.
Patrick Cua, CEO at Glytec, leads Glytec’s AI-driven technology and glycemic management platform, trusted by over 400 hospitals as the industry-leading solution to empower collaborative diabetes management and insulin dosing. The goal is to improve patient outcomes, reduce hospital length of stay, reduce readmissions, and optimize clinical workflows.
Glytec by the numbers
• 400+ hospitals live (program data; methods on request) |
Through clinical partnerships, leading outcomes data, and the power of its flagship FDA-cleared, cloud-based Glucommander® solution, Patrick and his team have demonstrated that insulin management is more than a clinical task. It is a multidisciplinary challenge, regulated by the FDA, measured by CMS, protected by significant intellectual property (IP), and broadly addressing the many use cases critical for patient safety, quality of care, and financial performance.
A Brief Introduction to Glytec
Glytec is the leading provider of a technology platform for diabetes and related conditions for hospitals and health systems. Its EHR-integrated Glucommander® insulin titration software—part of Glytec’s comprehensive enterprise platform—is used by over 400 hospitals and designed to support diabetes and glycemic management across the continuum of care from the hospital to the home.
Glucommander® is FDA-cleared, clinically validated, and enterprise-proven, with seamless EHR integration and hardened security. It can reduce severe hypoglycemia by 99.8%1 and shorten LOS by 3.2 days2. “We bring not just a platform, but a team that understands implementation realities, regulatory nuance, and shares one goal: saving lives through smarter, safer insulin management,” Patrick says.
Glytec has built lasting partnerships with CIOs and their teams to ensure glycemic innovation works within the real-world constraints of health systems. According to Patrick, their approach is grounded in practical, scalable deployment: from EHR and device integration to change management and adoption.
“We don’t ask CIOs to reinvent workflows or build bespoke tools,” he points out. “We bring a tested, enterprise-ready solution designed to embed smoothly into existing environments.” With Glytec, CIOs get a plug-in partner that is already aligned with FDA expectations, quality standards, and clinical outcomes. They help CIOs move fast, safely, and with confidence.
Data-driven decision-making is foundational to Glytec’s strategic planning. Patrick explains that it enables them to align their priorities with real-world clinical impact, customer needs, and operational performance.
Journey to Healthcare Tech Leadership
Patrick is a seasoned veteran of the healthcare industry, with a career spanning 30 years. Prior to joining Glytec, he worked at a range of companies, from large Fortune 500 companies to startups focused on solutions for consumers, hospitals, health plans, government entities, and Fortune 1000 employers. His industry experience began with C.R. Bard, and he has served in executive positions at CorSolutions, Matria Healthcare, Alere, and Aetna. Patrick also has built, chaired, and served on many boards.
Patrick feels that he can accomplish more in a leadership position than as an individual contributor. His desire to have a “broader, more meaningful impact” in the healthcare space inspired his transition to healthcare technology leadership.
“I realized that by leading teams, I could help scale solutions that truly change lives,” Patrick says. He has always believed in the power of collaboration. “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together” is the philosophy that guides his leadership approach.
Patrick stepped into the role of CEO at Glytec because he has seen firsthand the profound impact of Glytec on millions of patients, including people he knows. Also, its mission resonates with him. “The opportunity to lead a team working on technology that directly improves lives made this role feel not only meaningful, but essential,” Patrick says.
Technology Empathy and Alignment
Having been in healthcare technology leadership positions for decades, Patrick has a deep appreciation for the challenges, accountability, opportunities, and impact of CIOs and technology leaders. “Hospital technology leaders are faced with unprecedented cybersecurity challenges and compliance requirements,” states Patrick. “But on top of that, they must adapt to and adopt new AI tools and workflows at a rapid pace while also helping to satisfy financial goals and advancing provider and patient care. That is a remarkably tough balance act to achieve.”
Patrick ensures that the full power and vision of the Glytec technology platform enables CIOs and their IT resources to focus on industry-level priorities, operate at the top of their license, and advance their financial, IT-integration, clinical workflow, regulatory, and patient safety accountabilities.
“Knowing that 40%3 of patients in the hospital require insulin and that an even greater percentage of patients have diabetes related co-morbidities4, we are deeply aware of our ability to have a major impact on hospital care and outcomes, and help the personnel that diligently enable and support our solution,” states Patrick. “If we do our job, IT professionals stay out of the headlines for the wrong reasons, get in the headlines for the right reasons, and patients benefit by getting better outcomes.”
In sum, the Glytec platform enables CIOs to reduce risk exposure, meet CMS reporting requirements, drive financial return on investment (ROI), improve patient outcomes, and drive clinical workflow improvement and automation.
Importance of Hospital Innovation
At Glytec, innovation in glycemic management means transforming how hospitals deliver safe, effective, and personalized insulin therapy. Patrick explains that it involves leveraging intelligent technology, such as real-time clinical decision support and predictive analytics to improve outcomes5, reduce hypoglycemia6, and reduce readmissions7.
“By streamlining workflows, empowering clinicians, and prioritizing patient safety, innovation ensures scalable, sustainable improvements in glycemic control,” he points out. “And at its core, it is about using smart tools to deliver the right insulin, at the right time, for every patient.”
When it comes to glycemic management and patient care, innovation is not just about new tools. Patrick believes that it is about transforming the care model to be smarter, safer, and more consistent. He underscores that for Glytec and its Glucommander® platform, innovation lies in “bridging clinical insight with scalable technology” to tackle one of the most complex and high-risk areas of inpatient care.
As the first FDA-cleared solution for inpatient insulin management, Glytec takes the administration of a potentially fatal drug very seriously. “We underwent rigorous clinical studies guided by strict review boards and protocols just to submit our FDA documentation,” cited Patrick. “And once through the FDA process, we must adhere to a strict quality, monitoring, and reporting protocol in order to ensure that our solution remains safe and effective.” This ongoing work reduces the liability—legal, financial, and ethical—and potentially life-threatening experimentation that could occur if a hospital or clinic were to try this on the fly in a live patient population.
“Hospital innovation is not merely technical innovation,” sates Patrick. “It must be guided by a deep understanding of the moral, ethical, and Hippocratic implications of its development and use on real patients.”
Diabetes and Glycemic Management is Strategic Priority
Poor glycemic management is a major concern across hospitals, but Patrick says that the harm that it causes to patients every day is avoidable. Hospitals are beginning to see it as a critical area to improve.
“Hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia aren’t just quality metrics,” Patrick points out. “They’re life-and-death events.” And CIOs committed to meaningful transformation must see it as a high-leverage domain that deserves immediate focus.
With Glytec, CIOs can turn insulin management into a strategic asset. This will result in the delivery of care precision, in addition to a reduction in variability. It will also support quality and safety goals across the enterprise. And they do it with a platform that is already built, tested, FDA-cleared, cloud-based, EHR-integrated, and saving lives.
“The question isn’t whether to innovate in diabetes and glycemic care,” he adds. “It is whether to adopt the turn-key industry standard of Glytec, or try building the equivalent without tens of millions of dollars in investment, over a decade of experience, billions of data points, FDA-clearance, skirting over 100 patents, surpassing the validation of over 100 publications, while accepting the whole-house risk of actively building your own limited solution, experimenting on patients, and putting their lives at risk. Replicating an FDA‑cleared insulin‑management system typically requires multi‑year validation, significant capital, and legal‑risk management. Most systems realize faster time‑to‑value by buying and configuring an enterprise‑ready solution.”
Patrick highlights that this is not an area for experimentation, and glycemic management is too complex and too consequential. So, partnering with Glytec allows CIOs to lead with confidence and without compromising safety, speed, or clinical integrity.
Supporting CIOs to Navigate Complex Intersection
Patrick acknowledges the pressure hospital CIOs face, and he has immense respect for them. CIOs are expected to lead innovation, drive outcomes, maintain compliance, and do it all within shrinking timelines and tighter budgets. He believes that the stakes are high and nowhere is that truer than in clinical decision support tied to patient safety.
“Glycemic management sits at a critical intersection—clinical risk, regulatory oversight, and technological complexity,” Patrick points out. That is why Glytec was purpose-built to take this burden off the shoulders of CIOs.
He also points out that they do not expect CIOs to try to build this themselves, diverting the focus of their team and resources away from cybersecurity and AI workflow initiatives for 12 to 24 months in an attempt to reinvent a fully-productized, FDA-cleared technology solution built by a venture-backed company over the course of 15 years, with more than $100M in capital, and protected by over 100 patents.
In addition, for CIOs, the risk of patient harm, lack of insurance coverage, and potential lawsuits and financial settlements is too high and the need is too immediate—especially with the upcoming CMS electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) for severe hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, effective January 1, 2026.
Glytec supplies FDA-cleared technology, the integration playbook, and the implementation experts to deliver full ROI within six months of launch. This enables CIOs to achieve quick wins across the board on IT focus, financial ROI, CMS reporting, patient outcomes, and clinical workflow improvement and automation.
Dealing with Challenges
As CEO at Glytec, Patrick has encountered multiple challenges. When he tried to scale Glytec’s solutions, he had to overcome significant variability in clinical practice, EHR integration complexity, and operational capacity across healthcare systems.
Other challenges that he and his team have faced include resistance to clinical automation, diverse IT environments, and resource constraints. They handle these by delivering strong outcome data, offering robust implementation support, and aligning with system-specific workflows.
“Glytec’s commitment to partnership, security, and education has been key to driving adoption of its innovative insulin management technology at scale,” Patrick says.
Integrating Work, Family, and Leadership
At his first job, where Patrick spent ten years, everyone took personal responsibility for guiding new employees. “They took that duty seriously,” Patrick says. That experience shaped how he leads: mentorship and support are core obligations. When leaders mentor and support their team, doing the right thing becomes instinctive. “That early exposure to a culture of accountability and care continues to define how I build teams and lead with purpose,” he says.
Patrick also views work and family as one integrated life. He leads Glytec with a disciplined, people-first ethos that builds a culture of purpose, mutual support, and sustainable performance.
Future of Diabetes and Insulin Management
Patrick envisions a future where diabetes and insulin management are fully personalized and intelligent across the continuum of care, seamlessly integrating consumer device data, digital health solutions, inpatient workflows, and discharge and home-based care programs. He also sees the importance of vertically integrating devices and software within the inpatient setting to harmonize workflows and reduce manual clinician workflows.
“We are building a powerful platform that can solve both these horizontal care coordination and vertical inpatient solution synchronization challenges, while also broadening the impact of diabetes care to related conditions and co-morbidities,” says Patrick. “We are leaning heavily on AI to help us achieve this vision, and that is supported by a deep, unique dataset developed over 15 years as well as a talented AI team focused on model development and training.”
This vision aligns well with CIO and hospital priorities to leverage AI, automate workflows, reduce manual processes, and better orchestrate hospital hardware and software. “The doing is critical,” says Patrick about the vision, “but it also has to be supported by data and visualization that make it easy for an organization to measure ongoing progress, financial returns, and improvement in patient outcomes.”
While Glytec’s current analytics on inpatient glycemic management are unrivaled—tracking adverse events, developing CMS reports, monitoring patient safety, and calculating direct ongoing financial ROI—our expanded set of AI capabilities foresee clinician actions and needs and help CIOs and IT teams skate to where the puck is going.
“The future is not just about controlling blood sugar,” Patrick points out. “It is about saving lives and fundamentally changing the hospital experience for patients, providers, and hospital teams when it comes to the massive and growing area of diabetes care.”
Advice for Aspiring CEOs
To aspiring CEOs, Patrick’s advice is to take learning seriously, especially when they are just starting their careers. He highlights that every role one steps into is an opportunity to build the skills, understanding, and empathy one will need as a leader.
The role of CEO is the product of diverse experience. “It is that breadth—not the title—that equips you to make a meaningful, lasting impact,” Patrick says. “So, embrace every job as a chance to grow, and never stop being a student of the work, the people, and the mission.”
References:
- Rabinovich, M., Grahl, J., Durr, E., Gayed, R., Chester, K., McFarland, R., & McLean, B. (2018). Risk of Hypoglycemia During Insulin Infusion Directed by Paper Protocol Versus Electronic Glycemic Management System in Critically Ill Patients at a Large Academic Medical Center. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 12(1), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932296817747617
- Newsom R, Patty C, Camarena E, et al. Safely Converting an Entire Academic Medical Center From Sliding Scale to Basal Bolus Insulin via Implementation of the eGlycemic Management System. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2018;12(1):53-59. doi:10.1177/1932296817747619
- Guillermo E. Umpierrez, Scott D. Isaacs, Niloofar Bazargan, Xiangdong You, Leonard M. Thaler, Abbas E. Kitabchi, Hyperglycemia: An Independent Marker of In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with Undiagnosed Diabetes, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 87, Issue 3, 1 March 2002, Pages 978–982, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.87.3.8341
- Shuvo, S. D., Hossen, M. T., Riazuddin, M., Hossain, M. S., Mazumdar, S., Parvin, R., & Elahi, M. T. (2023, September 11). Prevalence of comorbidities and its associated factors among type‑2 diabetes patients: A hospital‑based study in Jashore District, Bangladesh. BMJ Open, 13(9), e076261. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen‑2023‑076261
- Bode, B. W., & Clarke, J. G. (2020, June 13). Evaluating the impact of Glucommander on improvement in Time‑in‑Range (TIR) in Type 2 diabetes using continuous glucose monitoring. Glytec. Retrieved from https://glytec.com/evidence/evaluating-the-impact-of-glucommander-on-improvement-in-time-in-range-tir-in-type-2-diabetes-using-continuous-glucose-monitoring/
- Glytec. (2025, February 12). Ohio‑based healthcare system improved overall hypoglycemia with Glytec [Case study]. Glytec. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://glytec.com/casestudy/ohio-based-healthcare-system-improved-overall-hypoglycemia-with-glytec/
- Mumpower, A., Hou, S., Parsons, T., & McFarland, R. (2016, November 10). Relationship Between Glycemic Control Using eGMS and Readmission Rates in Cardiovascular Patients Hospitalized with AMI, CHF or Undergoing CABG During a System‑Wide Glycemic Initiative. Glytec. Retrieved from https://glytec.com/evidence/relationship-between-glycemic-control-using-egms-and-readmission-rates-in-cardiovascular-patients-hospitalized-with-ami-chf-or-undergoing-cabg-during-a-system-wide-glycemic-initiative/
- Guillermo E. Umpierrez, Scott D. Isaacs, Niloofar Bazargan, Xiangdong You, Leonard M. Thaler, Abbas E. Kitabchi, Hyperglycemia: An Independent Marker of In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with Undiagnosed Diabetes, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 87, Issue 3, 1 March 2002, Pages 978–982, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.87.3.8341
