Jackie,
What you are talking about is CGM or Continuous Glucose Monitoring. A patch is
applied to the skin which sends regular measurements to a smart device. There
are two sorts of devices, one that allows measurements to be taken when the
diabetic wants to measure which really is supposed to move away from the
regular finger pricking tests in common use, so is not what your friend is
looking for. The other automatically checks the glucose levels every few
minutes and sends the results to the smart device. Thresholds can be set for
alarms if the levels rise or drop below a certain point, like 4/0 mol/l. These
devices are currently not available on the NHS and the pads that have to be
replaced regularly are expensive. There is a movement to get the devices
available as they should offer better management of diabetes and therefore save
money in the longer term, just like insulin pumps are now available. I am
currently in touch with a producer of insulin pumps to see if the smart device
which currently comes with the pump and is inaccessible could be replaced by a
software app on a smart phone. The smart device connects to a pump with
bluetooth. The idea would be that the pump could be controlled and information
read from the phone. This would be also the next step for the CGM detailed
above. I’m afraid that nothing is going to happen soon though but that is the
way of these things.
I don’t want to sound patronising, but I would be concerned if your friend was
having regular Hypos and they are in any way debilitating, some changes should
be made by her to tie down why and when they are happening, but I’ll stop there
as this starts to sound like a lecture from the nurse and after 35 years of
being a type 1 I’ll go to hell for talking like that.
Regards,
Karl
On 30 Aug 2016, at 8:43 am, Jackie Brown <jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have a friend who needs to inject Insulin because she has type one
diabetes. She uses an iPhone, but would be willing to also use Android if
she can find what she hopes exists to determine when her blood sugars are
decreasing. She currently has no warning of when this is likely to happen,
and wonders if:
1. There are any accessible pieces of kit on the market that work with an
iOS or Android app that would help with this, and
2. How accessible any app might be, and whether anyone is using something
they could recommend?
Please feel free to drop me a line off list that I can forward to her if you
have any suggestions or experience with such equipment and apps. I think
Pam's difficulty is that while she can test her blood sugars, she has no way
of knowing when they are dropping until it becomes quite serious for her.
Many thanks.
Kind Regards,
Jackie Brown
Emails: thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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