[andy957]

I am a contributor to the All Things Tech column on DiabetesCare.net. I will be writing articles every 4-6 weeks on the technological side to managing diabetes, which includes apps, pumps, smartphones, pens, fitness equipment, and more. As my first such column, I decided, of course, to look at what apps are available for both BBOS 6/7 and BB10, as there are few to no articles on our beloved platform.

I would love to have your feedback, and would also appreciate your tweeting, facebook'ing , adding to other diabetes and BlackBerry sites the link to this article so it gains traction.

Thanks!
Diabetes Management for BlackBerry Users Andrew Stivelman Tech Writer Has Type 2 | DiabetesCare.net

[jaydee5799]

Thank you for the link and the information! Keep up the great work!

[muellerto]

I never got familiar with one of these apps until now. Something is always not good. I give you some criteria:

• long term data management (over years) including device and OS changes,
• data export and import in readable open format (XML, CSV)
• sending configurable reports to other people (doctors)
• SI units
• input of foreign data, diabetes management apps are often not designed to handle other data (pills, sports, heart rate, weight ...)
• I'm also not a friend of input masks because the data input should be as fast as possible. But very most of these apps lack a fast and simple data input. Once I found an app having two separate input fields for the digits before and after a decimal point - crap.

I prefer an own sophisticated solution for my purposes for years. I send my data to a private (closed) Twitter account (or elsewhere, this is open). All of my last three mobile phones did this very well and the data input is completed in seconds - just a few numbers and characters, fire and forget. Actually I use the command line of the Search app for this. Then, much later, a self developed application on my PC retrieves the new data from Twitter and puts them into my local SQL database, which is later used for creating reports with nice tables and diagrams. This step is not done on my mobile phone anymore. The mobile phone is used only for data input.

[Blacklatino]

I have a lot of friends that are Type 2 Diabetics. Unfortunately, very few are on BlackBerry. I searched AppWorld and noticed about 3 actual apps( out of 21 from the search), The search is based on my Z10. So, not really sure about the Legacy devices. However, I will definitely post the site on Facebook. Throughout my family, diabetes is a major issue....on all sides of the family. So, I'll get the word out over here. BTW.....THANK YOU. If it helps one person, that's one person trying to do better.

[andy957]

I never got familiar with one of these apps until now. Something is always not good.

Interesting post and take on the matter, thank you for your response. The gist of my article, however, was to provide information that if you're a BB user and are a person with diabetes, there are apps for you out there. My point wasn't really to say one was the best of all or that they are full-featured, but I did mention at the end that with the coming 10.3 release the number of apps will increase significantly from the Android side of the world.

I appreciate your feedback.

[muellerto]

The gist of my article, however, was to provide information that if you're a BB user and are a person with diabetes, there are apps for you out there.

Yes, thanks for this.

but I did mention at the end that with the coming 10.3 release the number of apps will increase significantly from the Android side of the world.

Yes, right, and I'm sure a lot of people will find something useful. The intention behind my criteria was to open your eyes for these aspects, aspects really seldom to find somewhere, also aspects not everyone has, I know this. But if you are diabetic and you want to take it serious you must take care about these things.

One of the most popular apps (at least in the German speaking countries) is SiDiary. You will find this in the Apple and Android app stores. Many people use this. And many people do interesting and abstruse things, i.e. exports to the SiDiary website and then from the website into a file readable by Excel just to print a table on a sheet of paper. And if they smash their phone all the data are lost. I heard a lot of stories from them. And this is something typical the very most of these apps have.

[andy957]

Good morning muellerto, thanks for your post. This is precisely the kind of feedback and discussion I was hoping to generate with my article. I have looked at SiDiary as well, but due to space restrictions on the website I couldn't write about all the apps that I had found. I have a huge favor to ask of you (and all who are commenting on this thread), please add your comments to the article itself on DiabetesCare.net. Since it's my inaugural post on that column, I (and the editors in particular) would love to see action and interest attached directly to the article. If you prefer to do it here only, that's fine too but it would be awesome to have your feedback there.

On the subject of data loss, you have an incredibly valuable point. This is why in the case of HandyLogs Sugar that I reviewed, for example, it is important to choose an app that has not only a BB version but also can be synced to an online resource. I am considering this as the topic for one of my next columns, as well as devices such as FitBit which are automatically synced to a phone and a website.

Please keep the comments coming, it's great. And, again, if you wouldn't mind posting directly on the site that'd be really awesome.

Thank you.

[andy957]

Side note. I posted the link to my article on my Facebook page. An old college buddy of mine said he loved the article, but, and I quote, "I had no idea there was a new BlackBerry platform". 'Nuff said.