The hot buzz these days is all about health apps. Some track exercise. Some act as insulin bolus calculators. Others are log books and reminder alarms … and more. Here’s just an update on the app market.
Fitness Trackers … Are They Accurate? as reported on MedPage Today, 1 May 2017. A study conducted by Cadmus-Bertram test 4 popular trackers on the market vs. the gold standard ECG at rest and at 65% of max heart rate during exercise on the treadmill.
The trackers in this study:
- Fitbit Surge
- Basis Peak
- Fitbit Charge
- Mio Fuse
The results matched closely with the results from a Cleveland Clinic study conducted last year. The ECG results and repeatability coefficient compared well at rest for some devices, such as the Fitbit Surge. However, the accuracy and precision of the measurements seem to vary a lot during exercise.
While these devices may be “close enough” for assessing daily activity and exercise, more study is needed to use the data clinically.
Read more: iMedicalApps: Are Fitness Trackers Accurate?
Glooko & Fit4D Combine Digital Diabetes Management, Human Coaching, reported on FierceBiotech, 27 April 2017.
Glooko and Fit4D, a diabetes-focused health coaching service, are combining their offerings to provide patients with an “end-to-end” solution for diabetes management.
Under the partnership, the duo will combine Glooko’s digital platform, which integrates data from an array of diabetes devices, and Fit4D’s technology that connects patients to a team of certified diabetes educators—including clinicians and dietitians—that coach individuals who are learning to manage their disease. The combined platform will result in one of the most “scaleable, integrated diabetes management offerings,” the companies said in a statement.
Read more: Glooko, Fit4D combine digital diabetes management, human coaching
FDA Clears Apps to Optimize Basal Insulin Dosing, published on diaTribe.org, 26 April 2017.
Sanofi’s My Dose Coach, a new, under-the-radar mobile app for adjusting basal insulin doses for those on injections, received FDA clearance in late March. Similar to Sanofi’s MyStar Dose Coach blood glucose meter launched last year in Europe, a healthcare provider prescribes and sets up the My Dose Coach mobile app so that it can suggest optimized basal insulin injection doses for people with diabetes. The app will use fasting blood glucose and hypoglycemia data and recommend changes in doses if readings are too high or too low.
Several other insulin dosing apps are in development or coming to market soon. Just to mention a few: Voluntis’ Insulia (for Lantus and Levemire only), Novo Nordisk and Glooko for insulin dose titration, Lilly’s Go Dose app for adjusting Humalog insulin, Livongo and Glytec insulin dose adjustment software for healthcare providers, Glooko his its own app called Mobile Insulin Dosing System (MIDS).
Read more: FDA Clears “My Dose Coach” App to Optimize Basal Insulin Dosing
Verily Reveals Research-Focused Wearable Health Tracker, according to FierceBiotech, 17 April 2017.
Verily has announced its long-discussed wearable health tracker, Study Watch. The Alphabet unit formerly known as Google Life Sciences has designed the watch to meet the needs of clinical trials and the patients they monitor, resulting in an unobtrusive device with a long battery life.
Focusing on researchers, rather than consumers, has resulted in a device that is notably different from wearables from Apple, Fitbit and other manufacturers. Some of the standout features of Study Watch are those designed to ensure research participants keep wearing it for the duration of the trial and cut the risk of data loss.
Read more: Verily reveals research-focused wearable health tracker
