Text a Friend, Answer a Call Track Your Diabetes?

Last month, Sensei, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based mobile technology developer and subsidiary of Humana, launched My Diabetes Guide, a 99-cent downloadable application for the iPhone and iPod touch that takes patients step-by-step through the keys to healthy living with diabetes.

The release is timely, as news reports note people with diabetes are increasingly cutting back on physician visits, treatment and testing during the recession.

Designed in collaboration with the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, My Diabetes Guide uses daily and weekly reminders for self-management tasks.

“To Do” list prompts include when to monitor glucose levels, take medications and check feet and weight so patients develop a consistently positive behavior pattern. Patients also can log their data into the program to ensure timely recording of vital statistics.

In addition, the new app prepares patients for doctors’ visits with a checklist of items to bring, questions to ask and what to expect at a checkup. A “To Know” screen teaches users to communicate effectively with physicians to develop a productive working relationship. A “To Eat” screen helps diabetics make smart nutrition decisions and healthier meal choices.

According to Robert Schwarzberg, Sensei president and CEO, the program “is a comprehensive tool that takes patients, and those involved in their care, one screen at a time through all fundamentals of diabetes management.”

At a demonstration in March, Johnson & Johnson’s LifeScan showed a prototype system for diabetes management on the iPhone. By interfacing a glucose meter with the mobile phone, a patient can keep track of glucose levels and look at historical patterns. Among its features, LifeScan’s application can calculate sugar intake during meals and help patients to adjust their diet more precisely.

The product is not ready for commercial launch, according to the company, but the demonstration does show the possibilities.

With 24 million diabetics and 57 million pre-diabetics in the United States, mobile applications empower people “to play an active role in their own treatment, thus increasing the likelihood that they can delay or avoid long-term complications — such as cardiovascular disease — linked to diabetes,” says Jonathan Lord, M.D., Humana’s chief innovation officer.

“With the proliferation of mobile phones in America, we believe this is an important avenue to reach people with diabetes.”

Sensei’s My Diabetes Guide joins another 30 diabetes-related iPhone applications, which also boast other health-related programs including a calorie tracker, a pedometer and even Wake!Gently, an alarm and bedside clock that wakes users as they are supposed to be, its makers say: “slowly and gently as nature intended.”