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Feel Good Friday - Tidepool


It's been a hot minute since my last diabetes post - but never fear! Today I'm combining my love for all things numbers with my (sometimes) burdensome task of reviewing diabetes trends. And no, this post is not sponsored, it's just a good old-fashioned pass-on-what-works sort of thing!

A few months ago I was googling around, trying to find an integrated diabetes device uploader and happened upon Tidepool. The website looked slick (you know, important things people!), and the program was free so I decided to give it a go. Also, did I mention it's FREE?!?!

The program download was fast and easy, choosing which devices to sync was fast and easy, connecting and downloading data from said devices was fast and easy - basically the whole process was FAST and...EASY! WIN and WIN!

Also - I'm super late to the Tidepool party because I think it's been around in one form or another for around 5 years now, but I digress.

If I could reach out and just give Tidepool and all the folks behind it a big ol' hug I would - the data is elegantly and intuitively presented, the uploads are quick, and the organization is exactly how I would have designed my own system. I also appreciate the fact that the data is shareable, with family, friends and doctors, although I don't have plans to use that feature at this point. Instead I just login to the website and stare with a romantic twinkle in my eye at the gorgeous trends and streamlined interface. 

Don't believe me? Just look at these pretty screenshots!

This is part of the "basics" display - I've never even considered trending out how long I go between site changes, what a neat graphic! And the "basals" section below has definitely morphed now that I use the Basal-IQ system, all of those dots represent a period of 0% basal rate that the pump automatically programmed based on my CGM trend! This technology is so great guys! Like, not a cure, but so great!


Oh, you want to see just some general day trends? Bam! Those colors, those graphics! And you may be surprised to know, this specific day I was working overnight in Mission Control so I slept from about 10am - 5pm!


And I couldn't help but include this helpful "week" trend chart complete with standard deviation and options to focus in on weekdays or weekends! My little engineer heart is so happy with these graphical representations of the constant stream of numbers being generated by this disease!


Even more exciting than the amazing data displays Tidepool offers is the non profit's commitment to developing a Loop system. For those non-D readers, or T1Ds not familiar - "Loop is an iPhone app that brings together an insulin pump, CGM, and insulin dosing algorithm to modify your basal rates every five minutes to give you the insulin you need," as stated on Tidepool's site. It's sort of like a college-educated Basal-IQ. This is crazy exciting to me - both from the standpoint of a T1D looking for tighter (and easier) blood sugar control, and as an engineer, inspired by a community shouting "we are not waiting!" Heck, if I didn't have the International Space Station to fly I would absolutely jump on one of these diabetes device engineering teams!

If you're a diabetic have you tried Tidepool? I would love to hear about your experience! And if you haven't tried it - go download it here now! Happy Friday everyone!
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