The Most Important Digital Health App of 2013: Bugs and Drugs In a year that saw consumer-facing digital health app after consumer-facing digital health app, the app that impressed me most was actually clinician-facing, not consumer-facing.  In 2012, the digital health apps that stood out to me most were Kinsa, a smartphone-connected thermometer enabling real-time community maps of infectious disease, and GeckoCap, a wireless sensor-in-a-smartcap for asthma inhalers enabling

I expect that this meter will be very popular, as it will allow people with diabetes to automatically record their glucose values on their iPhones, eliminating the arduous task of manual entry.  I would love to hear from patients who are planning on using one or have already tried one about their experiences with them. They will be sold not only at Walgreens but also the Apple store, which is proof about the growing and profound connection between consumer technology and heal

There are two ongoing clinical trials to be aware of. One is at the Univ of Maryland and is using the forementioned Telcare meter.  This study is a 6-month pilot study taking 100 patients with diabetes (both types 1 and 2) and randomizing them to either typical glucose meter or the Telcare meter.  The outcome measures will be to see if connecting the patients via the Telcare meter will improve self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) compliance, to see if A1c is affected, and

1) The Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard is creating a telemedicine platform so that they can start doing long-distance diabetes consultations. I’ve been doing a lot of “VTel” (VA slang for videoconferencing) at the VA this past year for diabetes consultations.  While they aren’t a perfect substitution for a face-to-face conversation, they do generally seem to get the job done and save our remote patients a lot of travel time. 2) Reviews by Marisa Moore of 10 iPhone diabetes

Still not available in US (though finally FDA approved), but now available in the UK, is the iBGStar from Sanofi.  This device is similar in spirit to the Glooko iPhone connector dongle that I recently wrote about here. This is a very exciting device because it will allow patients to electronically capture their blood sugars without any extra work.  No more transcribing numbers into a logbook, either a paper one or even a digital logbook.  As soon as you check your blood suga

While I haven’t tested this cable or software from Glooko, they seem to be on the right track.  Largely for insurance reasons, patients use a wide variety of glucometers.  Many patients have one glucometer for home, one for the car, one for work, all different brands.  Being able to download all of the data from different devices into one location is very helpful.  It should make many providers happy that the Glooko app appears to let you display the downloaded data in the fo