Online Blood Glucose Tracking Tools: Reviewing 7 options

Treatment
#1

I just finished a two-part series reviewing all current services that offer online blood glucose tracking tools that I am aware of. At the very least they let you do glucose tracking online, but most of them do much more.

Part 1: http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/84404/57629/tracking-glucose
Part 2: http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/84404/61449/glucose-tracking

Have you tried them? What are your thoughts about these online tools? Pros and cons you see to each?

Links Added by the TuDiabetes Admin Team

Glooko -Logbook App for Smartphone

7 diabetes Apps for Your Smartphone

MySugr Group

Best app to record…lots of things?
#2

I’ve been using SugarStats pretty extensively for about two months now. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. I bought a monthly subscription, and have been tracking all my food/meds/activity/blood glucose.

Pros:

  • Entering data is really easy. I like that you can do “add multiple entries” and in one screen, add meds, food, glucose readings, and activities. It’s really fast.

  • It’s nice you can tag things with custom tags (like “1 hour after dinner” or whatever)

  • It’s nice you can comment on all the stats.

  • it has nice drop-downs that remember previous entries. For example, I type in “yo” and my standard “yogurt & honey” breakfast auto-populates the food description and # of carb text boxes.

Cons:

  • BIG ONE: They have NO WAY to easily print out graphs/stats in a format that I can bring to my doctor. Yes, they have a few graphs that you can do a printscreen on, and that’s somewhat helpful, but things like a 30 day graph of my fasting number is pretty important, and there’s no easy way to do it.

I’d also really like a printable stat report. I don’t know about everyone else, but my doc will not take the time to look at my stats on the computer, even if I make it available to him (which you can). I need something that will print out everything I enter in a compact and easily readable format, and it doesn’t have this.

I’ve talked to the sugarstats guys, and they say they are working on additional reports, but I haven’t seen anything yet.

  • You can export blood glucose numbers so that you can look at them in Excel or other software apps, but only glucose numbers. I’d like to see activity/food/meds as well.

  • I wish there was a way to specify Fasting numbers. It seems like that’s a stat that a majority of people track, and there should be a checkbox to specify Fasting. I can mark it “fasting” with a tag, but that’s kind of a hassle.

  • I wish there were more options for graphing tagged numbers. I tag fasting and 2 hours after breakfast/lunch/dinner. I can see the average number for each tagged item, but I can’t make a 7-day graph of my “2 hour after breakfast” number, for example.

#3

I’ve been using healthengage for several months; since I have a blackberry its easy to update by going to their mobile web site and updating my readings its alot easier if you are not near a computer

#4

Sounds great but it is out of service. Is this just temporary? Does it happen often?

#5

So I got on this morning and signed up. I do not find the app for my blackberry, is that in the pro version?
Looks like a pretty cool website though.

#6

I must admit that I’ve looked into some of the online diabetes management sites, but I’ve decided not to participate. I am concerned with privacy, and the lack of control that could arise from what happens with my personal, private health information.

Any thoughts abouut my concerns?

#7

I forgot how i found this site but i did,

http://www.healthengage.net/index.cmd#

you can put in what your BS was at what times and before or after meals exercise and so on.
Then there’s another tab to put in how many units of insulin you injected when and what kind and if its a correction or mealtime or whatever else
You can graph/chart your numbers from that day to up to 3 months in i think 6 different styles, and you can print it out

I love it!!

#8

I signed up for an account with HealthEngage a while back. I later learned (through a friend) that they seem to be leaking email addresses:
http://benlog.com/articles/2009/08/03/healthengage-leaking-email-addresses

So I decided to remove my account: I have yet to get a response from them about this. They neither have responded to me nor have they removed my account. It’s been a few weeks since I started actively requesting this.

#9

American veterans can also use an online tool at http://www.myhealth.va.gov/ . Once they establish an account, they can enter BG results and other health information. They can also use the site to order prescription refills online without leaving the comfort of their sofa.

One downside is that test results from VA physician ordered tests (like A1C) are not yet available online, nor is your physician able to access the information entered by the patient on this site. It’d be nice if that were to become reality one day, as it would avoid needless duplication.

#10

I’m service-connected for Type 1 so I’m familiar with My Health-e Vet. Currently, I’m going in to the clinic monthly so my pharmacist can download my glucose readings to determine if a change to my insulin dose is in order. Sure would be awesome if I could upload the readings from home! I have the device that hooks up to my Aviva meter, but my pharmacist has neither web access nor the tools to do what she does at her office, she says.

#11

Sugarstats you don’t need to print them up and take to your doctor. they give you an address to you page and you give that to your doctor they can view all your stats and even comment to you online. I love this feature

#12

YOU dont need to put your entire Health history on the sites or any information you dont want. all your putting is your readings and what can anyone do with that? nothing

#13

Just purchased a Cincinnati Bell Smart Phone and my son-in-law added the app “OnTrack” for me. My daughter has the app on her phone and is having no problems. How she is doing with it, she has not said. I am still learning and looking for help. It does cover Insulin, food, carbs, med, exercise and A1c posting. There are grafts that can be made also. If any one is using that App. yell out I need the help. My daughter did say to Google it as she did for help, so that I will give a try. Once again if you have the App. please help me out,… somehow.

#14

@ Chele
I’ve been using OnTrack for over a year and found it really helpful.

The latest version seems pretty intuitive to me. What questions do you have?

Cheers,
Corinna

#15

Corinna: My problem is I can not get it to work and retain my numbers. Is there a website that you go to, to turn the app. on? Just do not know what I am doing?

Please help me !

#16

Do any of these sites accept the Dexcom as a source of data?

#17

I actually think these tools are great! I myself use an app for my phone that does the same thing, it shows charts, graphs, pie charts even! It tracks my insulin use and graphs my two different kinds of insulin! I of course use my log book also incase of a system failure. These things are wonderful and can give us and our doctors a different persceptive on our gluclose control. I show mine to my doctor all the time. He loves it! What I don’t like is the sites that charge a monthly fee. I think that’s ridiculas . I can see a one time fee but monthly is just taking it too far in my opnion.

#18

I find myself searching for Categories I want to use each time. the only ones that are permanent are Medications and Food. I can not get Food, A1c, Blood pressure, and weight set up as categories. I would greatly like some help with this. Chele

#19

Hi,

Sorry for the tardy reply. I didn’t see your post before.



For OnTrack (on an Android phone) to set up the categories you want to use (i.e., Food, A1c, etc.) from the HOME menu click on SETTINGS. Scroll down to TYPES. Click on TYPES then click on whatever you want to track so that the check mark is highlighted. That will “turn on” that category.



After you turn the categories on, you set the units for glucose, HbA1c, and weight by clicking on those items listed on the SETTIINGS screen.



To enter your info, from the HOME menu click on ADD. Click on the down arrow next to TYPE to see your list of categories. Click on whatever you want to add then fill out the rest of the info. DATE and TIME default to the current moment but you can change them if needed by clicking on them.



Note: for food the data entry screen has a place for the total number of carbs consumed. But if you want to record what you ate you have to click on the NOTES tab at the top of the data entry screen and type in the info you want to record.



There’s a website about the program at http://www.gexperts.com/products/ontrack/ontrack.asp You can get there by clicking on you phone’s menu button and then clicking on OnTrack’s HELP button.



Hope this helps!

#20

I am using the On Track app. on my Smart Phone. Love it, but now how do I get the info from the phone to the PC?

It is probably so simple I missed it.