My insurance won't cover that

To add to Acidrocks comment of about 4 hours ago : My Specialist and Pump Nurse are both very much in favour of the Medtronic CareLink data …as a matter of fact my 522 pump did everything but… provide CareLink data ( almost 3 years past warrenty and was told to be " corrupted " ) ; it was the Specialist, who convinced my Extended Heath Company to pay for my updated Veo pump this past February .MM did their part too in the process .

Bummer! Sorry. If you call the meter company, they may send the cd, usually free - cable thingy is purchased though. Or maybe download from their website? Surely they have something for the consumer?

Trisha

Sure is maddening! Mine accepts handwritten logs, but it’s not as if he really examines at them. Just something to go into my file. Next time, I’ll list all my readings as perfect 83’s–lol!

LOL – If I had done that to my first doctor, she surely wouldn’t have noticed. Heck, I could have put them all in as 383 and she would have told me how great I’m doing. Gah.

And eat more carbs!

Exactly!

I keep checking their website, but they don’t make the software for the Mac. Maybe next year I’ll get a Windows based laptop.

Careful dont go there the insurance will deny bennies!! They want logs with certain number of his and certain no of lows I have even heard of some that create artificial logs just to prove a point. Of course, i would never do that but I hear some do!

Some meters allow you to input a field for pre or post meal, Bayer Contour USB Meter for one. That’s a little better but still misses info that might be useful in your case. My meter software (WaveSense) allows me to enter meal times. Then it sorts readings by pre and post meal and prints charts and graphs. My doc does look at the averages by time of day, but the numbers are about what you would expect, worst in the morning due to DP and best in the evening. Since my eating schedule is fairly consistent that works well for me, and the info I get is useful.

I read some meter company is developing a meter that hooks up to a smart phone. This could be very useful as these devices are becoming ubiquitous and give you access to a keyboard in a small from factor. In your case what would be needed would be the ability to add a custom field in which you could use a simple code to describe which type of reading this is. Ultimately this data would need to be put into a spreadsheet or better yet a desktop database so it could be sorted and grouped…

I agree that looking at columns of raw data is next to useless but you could duplicate some of the functionality by entering your logs into a spreadsheet or ideally a database. Some of the data entry could be avoided by exporting the data from your meter (most will export in csv. format) and then importing into your program. I did this with data from my blood pressure meter, because the charts from the included software was next to useless. I did it in Access and had some nice charts in 45 minutes. Since I do this at work all the time it was fairly painless.

Too geeky for most I admit, but I noticed you are a software developer so I thought I’d mention it. After putting your data into a form that can be sorted, you could look for patterns and perhaps act upon the info. I doubt if most docs would spend the time though.

I think there is a need for this type of thing, at least the ability to narrow down which type of reading it is. Perhaps one of the online glucose trackers would be interested in adding such a feature.

I already do this for me. They won’t look at it. It’s like a form of torture or something for them to have to actually take some time, look at the numbers, think about them. Don’t ask me why. I guess if you’ve painted yourself into a corner with scheduling and spend something like 3.2 minutes with each patient because you’re horribly over-booked and dealing with real human beings, not robots, then the idea of taking time to look over a spreadsheet feels like torture to them. They scowl. They back away. They run for the door.

Over the 54 years of my lifetime our medical system has gone to Hades in a handbasket. Doctors USED to schedule one to three patients per hour (physical vs. re-check for chronic condition). Then it was four per hour. Then six. Then less. How can you actually provide healthcare to three people in 15 minutes? Answer: you cannot.

Pretty soon they’ll be like one chiropractor I saw in California, who had FOUR adjustment beds in ONE room and would line us up and go from person to person? Privacy? Oh, no. That was cutting into his profit. (Yes, I fired him.)

By the time I finish the books on my nightstand, I’ll be my own endo, like most of the other diabetics on the planet who want to keep their eyes and their feet intact. I don’t trust any of my doctors anymore. They’re so busy looking at a computer screen and running for the door, that if I didn’t have a list of questions and a strong personality, I’d never get my feet checked, my heart listened to or my prescriptions re-filled. I swear that my second-to-last doctor looked at my A1C – which had gone UP from 5.6 to 10.7 – and told me how GREAT I was doing “compared to my other patients”. Utterly useless.

Diabetes does seem to be a do it yourself disease.The sad thing is that if you are insufficiently geeky, this info may be totally unavailable to you. I am used to sorting data in various ways and looking for patterns that shed light into whats going on. But your average person is not like me, and why should they be, in order to get the best care?



I wonder if an algorithm could be constructed to screen a patients meter data and perhaps meal, exercise and other things, and point out problem areas. Perhaps it could then recommend a range of treatments or behavior modifications to address said problems.



The first step would be a common data standard so software could handle data from multiple devices. This would enable people writing software to cater to a larger number of people instead of being restricted to just one hardware platform. Here’s an interesting discussion about this at the Geeks with Diabetes Group, if anyone is interested.



Unfortunately docs are probably going to under increased pressure to do more with less as the cost of health care continues to escalate and money to spend on health care continues to diminish. Perhaps technology can help. One thing for sure many people are not getting optimal care with the present system.

yes the algorthym exists its called the artificial pancreas - jdrf is sponsoring a contact your senator campaign to get them to sign on to a letter to the FDAto encourage acceleration ofthe program. Call your senator and representative and ask them to sign on to the Artificial Pancreas program!!

Truly is deplorable. My husband categorizes doctors as glorified mechanics.
My fantasy is mandatory re-licensing every 5 years based on peer & patient reviews. Patients complete a detailed doctor evaluation after each appointment. Imagine how we’d be treated with the power to assess them. As it stands now, doctors aren’t really accountable for level of care unless they do something egregious to be sued.

I love this idea. I think my HMO must go out of their way to hire the dregs that other medical centers wouldn’t hire. My newest diabetologist is pretty good, but some of the other docs are just scary-bad, e.g. the dermatologist who was supposed to be giving my annual skin check for melanoma (I had a stage one lesion removed in 2000) and she was about to leave the room without checking my scalp or anyplace covered by my underwear or my sitting area – back of thighs, lower back, etc. I just looked at her and said, “I’m from Louisiana and I spent my childhood running around outside in the blazing sun at my grandmother’s in Biloxi. Every inch of me has been sun-burned more than once. Where are you going?” She was shirty with me about it but for goodness sakes, I can’t see the back of my head, behind my ears or my lower back and thighs, not with these eyes and my arthritis. Sheesh. They go to school for decades and they can’t figure out that an annual skin check should involve more than a cursory glance at my face, neck and arms? I can see my own darn face, neck and arms, Dr. Lazy-Bones.

Maybe the next time I’m subjected to an arrogant, useless doc, I’ll pull out a legal pad & tell them I’m evaluating them–lol.

Good for you, Jean! Most people don’t have it in them to do this. They don’t question & blindly follow.

Well, they say “necessity is the mother of invention”, and there’s nothing quite like malignant melanoma to necessitate inventing a new attitude.

I’m not obstreperous because I enjoy it – sometimes it’s the only way to survive in this dang world, you know?

Give 'em heck, Gerri.

GROUP HUG!!! Everybody pile on!

;0)

What’s sorely needed is a patient revolution. Changing attitudes one doc at a time.

lynnn tjhis , I am discovering is a self serve disease. All the docs do ius write the script! We need to learn to manage on our own… The disease is so complicated that it takes more analysis than most dr’s have the time or the intelligence for. I had one that nearly killed my wife - just take more insulin - long acting at that and it would spike unexpectedly causing out for the count episodes. So now we manage things pretty much on our own; letting the doc review the lab work while we adjust the food, insulin and exercise on our own