
Testing Your Blood Sugar with Your iPhone - mgh2
http://blog.drchrono.com/?p=3640&preview=true
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orjan
"The process is clunky and uncomfortable — and dangerous due to potential
errors." -- No, it's not. Not anymore dangerous than the presented solution
anyway, which seems to be a common glucose meter connected to an iPhone. To
track your glucose levels with the phone is a good idea, but safer? No, the
testing method is exactly the same.

~~~
replicatorblog
There is actually a quiet revolution going on in glucose monitoring
technology/accuracy right now. The current standard of +-20% of a lab standard
is being challenged and a host of data is being presented at scientific
conferences that show better performance.

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ck2
You can get a usb based, digital glucose meter from Bayer called the Contour
USB. It even has a display built in.

It's potentially free after coupons if you are buying strips.

But the glucose meter market is a huge scam, with what is essentially 1 cent
litmus strips being sold for $1 each - manufacturers are milking insurance for
all it's worth and the people without insurance have to spend a small fortune.

I'm sure it's extracting many millions from the economy that could be far
better used.

Now that's a racket I'd like to see a startup disrupt someday.

~~~
antidoh
The test strips for my former meter are $64 for 50. Sometimes I just don't
test; I can get away with that because I don't use insulin.

Kroger (King Soopers in Colorado) has partnered with Wave Sense to sell a
cheap meter (most meters are cheap anyway); the test strips are $34 for 100. I
test a little more now.

Not a startup type disruption. The pharmacist told me Kroger just wanted to
help out.

~~~
ck2
I'm imagining a $100 device that instead of using any supplies like strips or
needles, maybe uses a ultrasonic pulse as a micro-drill to extract a molecular
sized droplet of blood to test.

Then it would clean itself using the same ultrasonic pulse emitter.

Or maybe forgo the whole blood deal and somehow use saliva.

~~~
sp332
It should be possible with saliva but the conditions are finicky. You have to
make sure you're reasonably hydrated, but haven't eaten or drank anything in
the last 10 minutes, etc.

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joeconway
The author of this article clearly has not actually spoken to a diabetic. All
current meters are almost as small and mobile and are all perfectly safe and
accurate. The only benefit of this is the added visualisation aspect from
having the readings on a larger high resolution screen. I've read about the
iBGStar a few times, but I really can't understand why they use the 30 pin
connector instead of bluetooth. It seems unnecessarily limiting

~~~
replicatorblog
Hi Joe, Couple points:

\- The current level of accuracy glucose meters are required to provide is
quite poor. The current standard is +-20% of a lab standard 95% of the time in
concentrations above 75 mg/dL. The strip technology used by the iBGStar a
pretty big improvement. Not sure if Sanofi has any whitepapers on their site,
But worth a look.

\- I'm one of the designers of the iBGStar and we considered Bluetooth. We
actually have another FDA cleared product that uses Bluetooth, but cost,
battery life, and a bunch of technical issues led us to favor the 30 pin.

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions, or ideas!

~~~
LocalPCGuy
Please don't forget the Android users. With Bluetooth or micro-usb (with an
iPhone adapter), it would then be a software issue to support both rather than
a hardware issue. While I don't have empirical evidence to back this up, my
feeling is that Android devices may be slightly more popular for Diabetics
because they are generally more budget friendly than an iPhone and diabetics
have enough costs in their life already (my wife is Type 1.)

Regardless, please consider support both eco-systems.

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lloyddobbler
"Could this be the beginning of mobile diabetes monitoring?"

As so many people above have stated, no, you moron. We've been monitoring
blood sugar on the go for the past 30 years.

I've got Type 1 diabetes...and my current meter is smaller than the one shown
here. I can plug it into my Mac via USB to download and visualize the data (&
can control my insulin pump via bluetooth using the meter).

The only benefit with this particular iPhone-compatible meter would be
enhanced, immediate visualization of results. Which _might_ be easier to get,
and might not, given the inconvenience of having to remove an iPhone case and
plug in the meter. (Not to mention other issues - what if my iPhone's
batteries are dead? Will it still work?)

Unfortunately, this product reminds me of 5 years ago, when someone would
announce a new toaster, and the tech crowd wouldn't be impressed...unless it
was a _Bluetooth_ toaster. We're so focused on it being the hot new thing
(it's compatible with iOS! Oooh!!) that we ignore the fact that there's
nothing revolutionary being presented here.

The way I see it, this doesn't really change anything in terms of treatment.
If it's a more accurate meter, great - sell based on that. Not on the bogus
"we're taking blood glucose monitoring mobile" claims.

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inetsee
When I saw this headline, I thought that a new technology that does away with
finger sticking was becoming available. The new technology uses a small
flourescent tattoo that contains nanoparticles that flouresce differently
depending on blood glucose levels. The researchers are using a detector
attached to an iPhone to measure the flourescence, and convert it into a
glucose measurement. This isn't continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), but it
would be an order of magnitude less expensive. It would allow for much more
frequent glucose testing, without the pain of finger sticking, and without the
ongoing cost of test strips.

For more information, check out this post:
"[http://www.diabetesmine.com/2011/08/the-tiny-tattoo-that-
cou...](http://www.diabetesmine.com/2011/08/the-tiny-tattoo-that-could-
monitor-blood-sugar-in-florescent-light.html)

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pimeys
This is what I've wanted for a while. I don't remember to carry my diabetes
notebook everywhere, so I've been using these iphone apps for storing the
measurements. It's still kind of clunky and I haven't found any apps with good
UI and ability to export the result in a way I don't have to spend time in a
spreadsheet program.

Want.

~~~
citricsquid
Depending on your location you can get one now:
<http://www.boots.com/en/iBGStar-blood-glucose-meter_1253400/>

~~~
pimeys
Reading the comments, it seems hard to find test strips for the meter.

When living in Europe, you get the strips for free from the government. I have
to consult my doctor on Monday if it's possible to get the strips here in
Germany.

~~~
replicatorblog
It is definitely available in Germany, and most of Europe, I can't speak to
the specifics about how to get strips, but perhaps this will help:
<http://www.bgstar.de/ibgstar>

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crisnoble
TLDR: They invented a meter, extremely similar to the ones you have used for
the last 10 years, that clicks into your iPhone. If you are too lazy to use
one of the many excellent logging apps or softwares, this will be great, if
you have an iPhone. All in all it is a well designed gimmick for Sanofi to
__sell moar strips __.

I was really hoping for something cool with that title, like maybe using the
camera and flash to magically estimate your mg/dl when your in a bind.

But then I read: >Over 18 million Americans have diabetes, and they all live
with the painful, often thrice-daily process of using needles to check blood
sugar. The process is clunky and uncomfortable — and dangerous due to
potential errors.

And thought, it's not really painful at all, hopefully people check more than
3 times per day, it may be awkward to check in public but not clunky.

I am pretty pissed at the pace of technology development in the diabetes
arena, but this is not exactly a step forward.

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rogerbinns
It is also worth checking out Glooko, a startup from Palo Alto. They have a
logbook product that runs on iOS (the grapevine tells me Android is under
development) and also has a web site it can sync with. They have a cable that
goes from the iPhone/iPod to many of the common glucose meters on the market
today (many have what looks like a headphone jack but is really a serial
port).

<http://www.glooko.com/en/product/logbook/>

It should also be pointed out that it isn't only the folks who have to inject
insulin (type 1 diabetics) but also the increasingly larger population of type
2 diabetics where their body parts become increasingly "deaf" to insulin. The
biggest factor in blood sugar rises is what and how much you eat, so logbooks
and software can help you track the correlation. (Exercise is the biggest
factor in lowering blood sugar.)

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shanselman
This article infuriated me. I wrote a long comment and then it turned into a
huge blog post with links and pictures and 20 years of history.
[http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheSadStateOfDiabetesTechnolog...](http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheSadStateOfDiabetesTechnologyIn2012.aspx)

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lowmagnet
I use a standard meter (I'm type 1) and I enter my results into Diamedic* for
iPhone. It provides a lot of the graphing seen here, and it's rather easy to
enter the information. I don't regret the purchase of the software.

*<http://www.martoon.com/Diamedic/Diamedic/Overview.html>

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Caballera
As a type 2 diabetic I'm very interested in this product and looking into it
now.

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ajays
Now if only you could do away with test strips. They're so expensive, if
insurance doesn't cover it.

~~~
psb
Amen to this and I think the title is a little misleading no? This looks like
it is really about testing blood sugar with a regular meter that has a nice
connection to upload the data to an iphone. I'm glad there are smart people
working on this, but I'm waiting on the quantum leap in this field

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reiichiroh
This device won't work on any iPhone in a case unfortunately.

