A prototype for an iPhone app that provides an integrated hardware-software solution for diabetes patients, has won a $10,000 prize in a competition run by DiabetesMine. The competition aimed to find an iPod-like device or web app for diabetes management. The winning concept was designed to solve a problem that all diabetes patients (including this author) are familiar with: carrying around a number of disparate diabetes devices. It's often awkward and inconvenient, for example when you go out for dinner. So the application developers asked: why can't they all be housed in your mobile phone?
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The video below shows that this prototype solution is a neat combination of hardware and software - all of the daily equipment that Type 1 diabetes patients use is wrapped up into one package. The prototype was developed by Eric Schickli and Samantha Katz, graduate students at Northwestern University in Illinois.
DiabetesMine founder Amy Tenderich noted that they had "many iPhone-based entries, but what these two students have designed goes beyond a single logging, data calculation or learning application." She listed the following reasons this concept stood out (edited version):
- The LifeCase & LifeApp solution is a glimpse of the future; they've taken the integration of diabetes devices to its fullest conclusion.
- The phone acts as a glucose meter, controller for your pump, and data logging application all in one, with built-in capability to share the data across platforms. The case even houses a lancet and test strip storage for a complete, all-in-one solution.
- The system could easily be expanded to include continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).
- This system is not limited to the iPhone models, but could be implemented on any smartphone.
- The technology to make this system happen is all here and functional. It just needs some visionaries to push for implementation.
In regards to the last note, this is only a prototype currently. However, we agree with Amy that this is the future of diabetes mobile phone apps - and points the way to how mobile phones and the Internet will improve other health care appliances in the near future.
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