My mobile is just as much part of my medical device setup as the FDA-approved device it monitors



Michael Hoskins CGM experience

I credit my smartphone for saving my life that morning. After all, the phone is just as much part of my medical device setup these days as the FDA-approved device itself!

An unmissable article by Mike Hoskins, a Diabetic who has been “hooked up to the Nightscout-xDrip do-it-yourself CGM in the Cloud setup for an entire year now“, discussing the need to balance Diabetes Tech and Know How.

Mike’s article also points to this brilliant ‘Dexcom G5 CGM Review’ by Scott Hanselman:

While he loves Dexcom and lauds this latest-generation device as having much to offer, Scott points out that this G5 is very reliant on the phone, which causes some downsides. Namely, it doesn’t fill in gaps in data, and sometimes the Bluetooth just loses connection

Perhaps we should add a workshop format session to the mHealth Symposium at the World Diabetes Congress (31 Nov – 5 Dec 2015) to try and share ideas with medical device developers that will help them see how the born mobile generation would design continuous glucose monitoring services?

I wonder if they’d choose something as sketchy and power hungry as bluetooth or if with their native Shazam/Siri/Google Now familiarity they’d go for a mobile first design eg. like the proprietary ultrasound signal to mobile microphone approach Alivecor uses to sell me for just $75 ECG that works with all of our Patients mobiles without fail for 18+ months without as much as a replacement 50¢ battery!

Hanselman Dexcom G4 and G5 connectivity

Related posts:

“I live with a disease and my phone is as much a part of it as my meds” (Dec 2013)

Will the next Alexander Fleming be a Techie Parent​?​ (Dec 2014)

The BBC reports on how Parents are so fed up with unconnected care that they’re hacking the medical devices being used by their children (Feb 2015)

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