Originally published July 2011
This month’s DSMA Blog Carnival prompt is as follows:
Over the years diabetes technology has come a very long way from the days when syringes were boiled and sharpened, and sugar was checked using droplets of urine and fizzy tablets in test tubes. Today we can choose from an array of blood sugar meters, insulin pumps, carb counting apps, data uploading programs – technology is woven into our diabetes lives. But although technology has come a long way there is always room for improvement, right? So this month give us your complaints, your ideas and your technological wishes and tell us:
What improvements or adjustments would you make to current [diabetes] technology?
My weakness is dealing with technology. I love what it does for me but hate how it complicates things for me. I’m more into words and ideas than I am stuff so as nifty as technology is, I get lost in it. I can’t even work a dvd player without hard concentration. It’s not that I’m dumb, it’s that I don’t have motivation to learn these things. Someone nearby always knows for me anyway :)
Therefore this is what I would like:
I would like a nifty little watch that looks like this and tells me what my glucose is at all times including up and down arrows to show trending, like the CGM does. I would like it to be 99.9% accurate, 99.9% of the time. It would also, of course, show me the time.
This one thing would take away the need for a meter and the CGM. I wouldn’t have to spend money on those darn test strips, the only expense would be the watch and batteries. I would love a device that functioned like the CGM receiver to come with this watch so that parents or other caretakers can receive alarm notices and all data. The watch can be connected to the computer to upload the blood sugar information so people don’t have to log numbers.
I also want this gadget to help pump me up through the day. If I’m low I want it to send my cell phone a text that says, “Get out your glucose tabs! Everything is going to be ok”. When I’m high I want a text saying, “oops, lol” or “you’ll get it next time” or “take a deep breathe”. When my blood sugar is on target without any up or down arrows I want a text that says “Yes! Keep up the great work!” If I’m on target and trending upward I want a text that says “Whoa, what’s going on here?” If I’m trending downward I want a text that says “Lookout!”
I want the ability to turn off those texts at any time. They’d probably get annoying after the first day…
That’s my dream thing aside from a cure and aside from the closed loop system that we’re all hoping might work as good as intended…
Oh and if I couldn’t have that I suppose I’d settle for reusable test strips. At least then I’d have a bigger bank account with which to buy more diabetes technology!
What improvements or adjustments would you make to current diabetes technology?
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