Truth be told, I am a dork. I have been madly in love with computers ever since my 16th birthday, which at the time, was something that required a certain amount of secrecy to avoid stigma. Fast forward to the present, and people and their computers are almost indistinguishably symbiotic. Almost every man woman and child in america has at least one piece of technology that they would have a hard time managing their life without. For some, it is a laptop that they do their school work on, or perform job duties with, or play their video games on. For most, it is atleast a cellular phone that they keep on their person at all times.
We use these devices to manage information, and streamline specific tasks. As of late, the task that most obviously needs more streamlining, and the information that needs more managing, are the tasks and information associated with my diabetes. So, it is an affront to my nature to resist the urge to think of how the availability, and usablity of the technology associated with managing diabetes can be improved.
From what I have seen, there are two distinct groups of diabetic treatment management devices. There is the tried and true prick-test-inject devices, with low tech, and low cost. And there are the pumps and cgms, with a lot of expensive technology. However, most of the expense and technology are geared towards insulin delivery, and basic mechanisms of blood glucose measurement. Not very much technology in either group is geared towards personalized management. I think this is both an indicator incorrect perception of the key concepts of diabetic management, and a false idea that better diabetic treatment necessitates fundamental shift in how diabetes is treated.
What seems to lead more often to poor management of diabetes is not the method of insulin delivery. It is also not that lancets and test strips are too cumbersome. It is that the individual is unable to collect and digest the information nessesary to manage their diabetes in a manner, appropriate for them. Why though?
Glucometers generally collect 2 pieces of information from the user. Time of reading, and the blood glucose value. In order to compile more complex information, you need to write the information in a log, and then later on, unite these two data sets, perform some kind of analysis, and then you arrive at some sort of advice for long term management. It doesnt really sound like a whole lot, but when actually sit down and do these things, they can take several hours a week. The information's value is not immediately obvious, and the amount of time spent turning raw data into treatment advice is likely to put you off of rigorous management.
[to be continued]