Speaking as somebody who is married to a Type I diabetic...
The only way for a type I diabetic to stop taking insulin is to get a new pancreas. Tim Ferris claims a lot of skills but I don't think transplant surgeon is one of them. Proper diet and exercise can absolutely reverse Type II diabetes, which is probably where Tim has helped. It's an important distinction as this app appears to be targeted specifically at Type I folks who are dependent on external insulin.
I appreciate what they've done here but most blood sugar meters are already storing the readings and they have some poorly designed mechanism to get at the data. If they could import or somehow work with the data already stored in the meter that would be really, really powerful. Manually tracking each blood sugar test is going to be a limiting factor on adoption. My wife, for example, only looks back at her readings if she is having an issue. She'd appreciate a better interface to do that, but I'm sure she will not take up manually updating an app 8 - 10 times a day. I doubt she is unique in that regard.
A 150 average blood sugar level across all users shown on the front page seems high. Maybe it's an English vs metric measurement thing. I know what a good blood sugar is in the US (80-120) but I don't actually know the units are on that.
Cool app though. Now if they could just incorporate the blood test meter right into the iPhone...
90-140 average is what medtronic considers 'in-range' in my pump's data sets. Diamedic, another iPhone app for this, considers 80-160 'in-range'.
The difference isn't due to being from .au. It's because nobody agrees on what 'in-range' means.
My pump keeps track of all of this and uses a web site (carelink) to track results, and share them with my doctor/care team. I stopped using Diamedic since getting the pump, and it's nice to not have to perform an entry every time I mesure/bolus. It keeps track of everything, dose, carbs, readings, basal rate, etc.
If I apply one of their sensors, it tracks rough estimates of bg every 5 minutes, but it doesn't use blood to do so, making the result somewhat inaccurate. Good for spotting trends.
I'm painfully familiar with Carelink. Until just the last year or so I maintained an XP box at home that was only turned on once every 90 days, when my wife needed to upload data to print reports for her doctor. The Carelink hardware didn't work with anymore more recent than XP until 2011 or 2012.
That continuous monitoring is kind of cool in short bursts. It's only a matter of time until there is a real-time feedback loop that allows to pump to auto-adjust as needed.
I was originally going to post something similar about the Tim Ferris name drop and you beat me to it. I also don't get the point. His credentials seem very irrelevant to the app. I would rather see the names of the doctors who's research is making sure this is the best app possible.
My wife is also an insulin-dependent diabetic and will probably try this out and see if it fits her lifestyle.
Regarding the relevance of Tim Ferris: I'm not overly familiar with his work, but from what I do know, he's very well known for writing best-selling books on applying a scientific method to life improvement. That's what this app does, but puts a nice interface and layer of gamification over it. If Tim also has the tech company exposure as mentioned in the article, why would he not be a valuable advisor? At least on paper, his credentials seem very relevant.
Regarding the manual input of readings, I'm not diabetic, nor do I have anyone close to me that is, so purely an outsiders perspective here. The limitation of cable transfer of data is that 1. You have to support X number of testers 2. You have to support X number of phones 3. It doesn't encourage you to monitor your variations throughout the day. The end result is probably diminished user experience and a much smaller addressable market.
If you watch their demo video, the process to enter your reading is very simple. It will remind you if you're being slack and rewards you if you add information beyond just the reading. For example, you can take a photo of your meal, and make notes on how you're feeling. Presumably the more that goes in, the more value you get out.
The only way for a type I diabetic to stop taking insulin is to get a new pancreas. Tim Ferris claims a lot of skills but I don't think transplant surgeon is one of them. Proper diet and exercise can absolutely reverse Type II diabetes, which is probably where Tim has helped. It's an important distinction as this app appears to be targeted specifically at Type I folks who are dependent on external insulin.
I appreciate what they've done here but most blood sugar meters are already storing the readings and they have some poorly designed mechanism to get at the data. If they could import or somehow work with the data already stored in the meter that would be really, really powerful. Manually tracking each blood sugar test is going to be a limiting factor on adoption. My wife, for example, only looks back at her readings if she is having an issue. She'd appreciate a better interface to do that, but I'm sure she will not take up manually updating an app 8 - 10 times a day. I doubt she is unique in that regard.
A 150 average blood sugar level across all users shown on the front page seems high. Maybe it's an English vs metric measurement thing. I know what a good blood sugar is in the US (80-120) but I don't actually know the units are on that.
Cool app though. Now if they could just incorporate the blood test meter right into the iPhone...