TORONTO – A new app and device combo for iPhones aims to make it easier for people with diabetes to keep track of their blood sugar levels.
The Glooko Logbook app and MeterSync Cable is a new spin on the handwritten entries that many people with diabetes currently use to keep track of their blood sugar trends. It’s being demonstrated at the Canadian Diabetes Association conference in Vancouver this week.
Diabetics typically write in a logbook throughout the day, each time they test their blood sugar level. It’s important for them to see how diet, exercise and moods are related to their blood sugar highs and lows, and the logbook is a way for them to keep track. It’s also a way to share that information with their doctor.
Glooko believes its product, launched Oct. 4 in Canada, can offer an easier and more accurate solution compared with the manual entries that are subject to user error.
How it works
First, users connect the MeterSync Cable to their blood glucose meter. There are 16 Glooko-compatible meters currently available in Canada, listed on the well.ca site in the product description. Thirteen of these connect directly with the cable, and the three compatible Accu-Chek meters use infrared to transmit readings, so they need the IR adaptor as well as the cable.
Once connected, when testing blood, the reading is accurately downloaded directly into the app with a click on the phone. Even if diabetics don’t want to connect their meter to the iPhone for every reading throughout the day, when they do connect they will be able to download all readings that are stored in the meter’s memory.
Users can also take notes about things like how many carbs they’ve eaten and how much insulin they’ve given themselves– since almost everyone carries their phone with them throughout the day, the app makes this easy to do in real time.
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Prior to doctor appointments, users can fax or email their two-week or one month summary of logbook information that’s been stored through the app. (All user data is stored if they need to show more, but the two-week or month summary is available in PDF format).
Just another gimmick?
Dr. Margaret Lawson, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) had never heard of the Glooko MeterSync before today, but calls it a “neat device” among many other technologies she is familiar with.
She notes that one benefit of this product is that diabetics wouldn’t have to switch blood glucose meters (as long as they have one that’s compatible) since it’s just a cable to be plugged into their phone.
“It’s a great idea, but essentially it comes down to behaviour, and people wanting to modify their behaviour to improve their control and to check their blood sugar and use that information,” she said.
While the Glooko product is approved for use in those 18 years and over, parents can purchase the meter for their children or teens.
But kids and teens, she says, may lose extra equipment like the cable, and may not be interested in inputting diet and exercise information.
“The reality is that people get tired of checking over the long term,” said Lawson. “And they don’t look at the data as much as they should in order to manage their diabetes.”
Endocrinologist and Glooko chief medical officer Dr. Michael Greenfield says the reason he’s associated with this particular app and device is because it makes the task of monitoring behaviour much easier, and improves interaction with physicians.
Greenfield has patients using the app in his private California practice, who consistently enter diet and exercise information that helps to understand patterns and outliers in blood sugar readings that may otherwise have been forgotten.
“For the physician, it adds an important context and allows physicians to make better recommendations in terms of overall management.
“The advent of mobile health applications is a key change in health care that’s going to help us better manage and have people better manage their own condition,” he said.
Glooko officially launched this product Oct. 4 in Canada, and is demonstrating the Logbook app, MeterSync Cable and adaptor at the 15th Annual CDA/CSEM produced by the Canadian Diabetes Association on Oct. 10-13 in Vancouver, B.C. The Glooko product is not currently covered by health insurance. Click here for the costs.
Endocrinologist Michael Greenfield, M.D., is chief medical officer at Glooko, Inc. Greenfield is a former clinical faculty member from Stanford University School of Medicine and the former Chief of Medicine at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif.
Glooko™ is a Silicon Valley startup with a focus on solutions for people with diabetes. The Glooko MeterSync Cable and logbook app were launched in the U.S. in Nov. 2011, and has been hailed by industry influencers. The company was founded in June 2010 by technologist Yogen Dalal and mobile and web app developer, Sundeep Madra.
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