I'm thrilled to introduce you to Glucomate.
That feels good to write. It's been a long time coming.
For over 20 years, I've had to monitor my blood glucose every single day. The way in which I monitor it has changed a bit over the years, but the need to stay on top of the readings hasn't.
During that time, I've heard various things about a cure for type 1 diabetes. Funnily enough, it's always 5-10 years away. I won't get my hopes up, but what I do know is that over the last couple of decades, despite there not being a cure, the technology available to treat and manage the disease has improved dramatically. First came the insulin pump. Not having to take multiple needles a day is certainly appealing. I tried one of the early ones, but it didn't work well for me. Things were worse than when I was on needles, and led to my poor parents being very stressed. So they decided to go back to needles. Fair call. I should add that they were fantastic at managing my diabetes, and I only realised later how hard their job must've been. Fast forward the better part of a decade and I decided to give a pump another try. Things had advanced significantly, and it worked well for me. I'd gained some extra control over my blood sugar - especially useful during the turbulent teenage years. Happy days.
Not much changed for a while after that, until late 2017 when I decided that it was worth trying a continuous glucose monitor since I was eligible for a government subsidy on what was otherwise very expensive medical equipment. I wrote a lot about the experience - from being skeptical to deciding CGM was something I couldn't live without! Having real-time access to my glucose was transformative. Having real-time information can be stressful (information overload at its best), but the control it gives - especially when combined with an insulin pump - can't be beaten. My results improved dramatically, and to this day remain better than any time I was either on needles or just an insulin pump without CGM.
A CGM generates a lot of data, and the one I use even writes that data to HealthKit (though admittedly with a 3-hour delay). Real-time information is only available via the manufacturers app, unless you're willing to jump through many hoops. No matter, there's still a huge amount of data being collected. And it starts to build up. But surely all of this data is good for something. What can we do with it?
That's where Glucomate comes in. It's an app for people who record, track, and monitor their blood glucose and use HealthKit to do it. Glucomate is the app that finally does something with all that data. You can analyse recent readings, spot trends, or go back to any date and view its history. It does all this while trying to look as good as possible. A notable feature is the ability to customise each of the tabs by reordering the displayed data. You can even choose to hide the data that isn't relevant to you.
Glucomate is great for quick data entry - be it on your iPhone or Apple Watch. You're always only a few taps away from adding your latest glucose reading. If you don't record it manually, that's fine too. As long as your readings are written to HealthKit, it will be picked up in Glucomate. Further integrations with HealthKit mean you can view glucose during workouts or even during sleep sessions. Being able to view this data back is extremely helpful when trying to identify trends in your levels, and is useful when trying to make decisions to manage things even better.
But not everyone has a bunch of glucose data in HealthKit. Most people wouldn't. Glucomate has a full-featured Demo Mode which allows anyone to get a feel for the app by using it with sample data. This is an incredibly useful tool for helping you decide if Glucomate could be valuable for you - without having to give it data to begin with.
This is just the start. I have a long list of features and improvements that I hope to get to in good time. This first version of Glucomate gives the kind of stats and insights that I've always found most valuable when trying to manage my diabetes. I hope other people who record their glucose will find it equally as valuable. I'm sure that there are also types of graphs and stats that people prefer and that I haven't thought of. I'm excited to hear what other people would find useful, and work to add that into the app.
With that in mind, I'd love if you checked it out on the App Store. Give it a go. Play around. Put in your glucose readings, or try demo mode. And be sure to let me know what you think.
Links
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1574243765
Website: https://glucomate.app
Press kit: https://glucomate.app/presskit
Please feel free to get in touch with thoughts and feedback. A way to contact me is available on the Glucomate website.
