Blood+Glucose+Meter+(for+iPhone)

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__ ** Overview: ** __
- Blood Glucose Meters are very common in the health care industry, all of them do the same thing and really all look the same as well. With the push from phone manufactures to create the best smartphone breathes life into the health industry especially with Blood Glucose Meters.

- A **Glucometer** is defined as a medical device used for determining the approximate concentration of glucose (a type of sugar) in the blood. Glucometers flooded the market in the late 1900's but only as of late have smart phones been able to develop applications which are able to encompass the same features as a typical meter. The rise in popularity for these mobile applications directly correlates to the increased usage of smart phones. Many of the applications currently available still have much room for improvement, but are already very popular based solely on the convenience factor.

__** Blood Glucose Meter (for iPhone): **__
- There are a lot of applications being created now specifically for the iPhone as it’s not only a good looking product but hardware wise, one of the best devices on the market to expand the health care industry. There are a few apps to look into at the present moment, BGluMon, WaveSense diabetes manager, AgaMatrix and iBGStar. All of these applications are the same that you have to manually put in your data from your tester. After imputing data it will keep record of your data and give you graphs and charts to help you better manage your diabetes. WaveSense Diabetes Manager is taking a step further, building two different devices. The first device is a basic cord that connects your meter with the iPhone and downloads the data into it so you don’t have to put it in yourself. The second device is a little toggle that you plug into your device that’s no wider than the iPhone and you place a strip into it and it reads the data then projects it on your screen and keeps record of it. iBGStar is the newest application and is actually the first available blood glucose meter that seamlessly connects to the iPhone and iPod touch allowing you to view your information in **//real time//**.

Sanofi’s iBGStar seems to be the big one on top in this competitive field. It is offered from Apple for $100 and Walgreens is priced at $75, which include 10 testing strips. But iBGStar package includes 50 testing strips. It is a tiny device that plugs into the bottom of an iPhone. Text/Numbers are legible to read for most if not all users. And most importantly it is easy to use. Recently Sanofi is talking about ways to collaborate with other company, WellDoc’s Diabetes Manager program. Also Sanofi is looking into offering discounts for prospective users that already use its diabetes drugs. Ones who are in the healthcare industry are taking a strong interest in this device especially. With it they can track their patients post-discharge to determine un-noted or forgotten problems patients may have.



__ ** Applications: ** __
These applications were built to help better a patients understanding of their glucose level and to help better manage it. Since people already carry their mobile phone around it seems only fitting that manufactures make software and devices to help better people’s lives on the go. Coming soon you will be able to just plug in a little device to the phone and be able to  have your Blood Glucose level not only on the screen in front of you but monitored over time all with doing what you have done previously but without the hassle of having to write everything down.

iBGStar now as an App that Apple offers called iBGStar Diabetes Manager App. It was launched earlier this year. It will track eating habits, activities, analyze glucose patterns. The results are displayed as scorecards showing individual test results in various colors coded from high to low based on blood glucose results. Users are unable to tweak or alter the results. Although results marked with an “x” are editable and manually typed in. (MobileHealthNews)

__ ** Web Resources: ** __
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__ ** Producers: ** __

 * AgaMatrix
 * iBGStar
 * engadget
 * Telcare

__** Related Terminology: **__

 * HBGM (Home Blood Glucose Meter)
 * Glucose
 * Glucometer
 * Sanfori
 * Telcare

__ ** Citations/References: ** __
[] [] [|http://www.wavesense.info/iphone] [|/] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.33px;">[]