iPhone + Lifescan Glucose Meter Integration
Although it’s a bit after the fact, I’ve been meaning to write about the new iPhone and the short presentation that Lifescan (a Johnson & Johnson company) did during the Apple WWDC recently.
I’ve been a diabetic since 2004, and when I was first diagnosed, there was precious little in the way of software or electronic gadgets to help with monitoring and tracking glucose readings, much less doing it in some sort of automated way. I’ve tried many different software products in the past, some of which are provided by meter manufacturers, and some of which are 3rd party programs where data must be entered manually, or in rare cases, works with a data cable from a limited selection of meters.
I’ve posted some pictures from the great Engadget coverage of WWDC (see here for the original posting on their site) for you to look at .. I tried getting some direct images from Lifescan’s web site, but I wasn’t able to find anything on their own corporate site.
So, I’ve actually been a user of Lifescan meters for a long time, both their complex ones (the OneTouch Ultrasmart) and currently, their simpled, the OneTouch UltraMini. Though I’ve been happy with their performance, tracking my results has always been cumbersome, and the meter and supplies are yet more gadgets I have to lug with me and remember to use.
The demo showed some really neat concepts – reading meter results, looking up and entering in food (carbs), putting the data together in a really modern and easy to read full color display.
Even though there isn’t really a concrete product coming out of this announcement, I’m really encouraged by thinking that at some point soon, maybe we will see a dock-connector meter device that automatically loads results into the iPhone – and further, to be able to add devices like the Nike running shoe tracker, or pedometers, along with exercise tracking software – to where perhaps at some point all of this information will come together more easily for diabetics. I really hope LifeScan is actively working on making this a reality, or that if they don’t, that the other meter manufacturers are looking at this closely.
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