December 22nd, 2011 by KerriSparling in Opinion
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A few years ago, I connected with Kyrra Richards, creator of Myabetic, to highlight the completely adorable “Lovebug” meter case. She and I have talked a few times since, and I had the opportunity to reconnect with her at the Diabetes Sisters conference in San Diego back in October.
It was at that conference that I was able to check out her new project, Champ, in person. And it’s totally cool, in that “hey, let’s make my glucose meter case something that doesn’t suck” sort of way. I love it.
I asked Kyrra what the inspiration for Champ was, and she had this to say: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
November 3rd, 2011 by Medgadget in Research
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Medtronic received the go-ahead to begin an at-home U.S. trial of its Low Glucose Suspend technology that aims to prevent hypoglycemia by automatically stopping basal insulin delivery when measured glucose reaches a critically low level.
The pump technology is already available in Europe on the company’s Paradigm Veo insulin pump.
This is the second phase of the ASPIRE (Automation to Simulate Pancreatic Insulin REsponse) study, following the completion of the in-patient clinical study. ASPIRE is a multi-center, randomized, pivotal in-home study being conducted at multiple investigational centers to determine the safety and efficacy of the Low Glucose Suspend feature in the sensor-augmented MiniMed Paradigm insulin pump. Medtronic’s newest continuous glucose sensor, the Enlite™ sensor, will be tested as part of the overall system.
ASPIRE will compare Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 19th, 2011 by KerriSparling in Opinion
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What I’ve learned in the last twenty-five years with type 1 diabetes:
- Some of what “they” said is wrong. It just is.
- There are times when “they” make a good point, and it’s up to us as patients to figure out what information we react to.
- The needles don’t hurt as much now as they did then. Lancets have become smaller and sharper, syringes can make the same claim. Insulin pump sites, once they’re in, usually go without being noticed. Same goes for Dexcom sensors. (But “painfree” is a misnomer and so subjective that medical device advertisers had best just steer clear of that word entirely. All needles pinch at least a little bit.)
- Progress isn’t always shown in tangible technological examples. Sometimes progress is being able to look at a blood sugar number without feeling judged by it. Or to look in the mirror without wishing you were different.
- There is life after diagnosis.
- Diabetes is sometimes funny. It has to be. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
September 15th, 2011 by KerriSparling in News
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I’m not hooked on Apple products (I refuse to get an iPhone because I’m addicted to my Blackberry), but Chris and I do love that foolish iPad. And I love seeing apps for diabetes devices stocking the virtual shelves in the iTunes store. Makes me feel like we’re busting in to the mainstream, as a community.
Which is why I’m excited to see the first app from Dexcom. (And it’s free … as these apps should be, in my opinion.) While I’m hopeful that future apps include a way for the Dexcom receiver to transfer data to Mac products (because running parallels on my Mac is wicked annoying), this is a great start for people who are looking for introductory information on the Dexcom system. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
August 14th, 2011 by KerriSparling in Interviews, Opinion
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Jay Radcliffe is a fellow type 1 diabetic, and I remember reading his diabetes blog way back in the day, when I first started blogging. We read and commented on each other’s posts, and we were both part of the blogosphere when the DOC first started to grow. I knew he was married, had children, and did the day-to-day diabetes stuff that I did.
Which is why when I read the mainstream media’s take on his pump-hacking research (this article, Insulin Pumps Vulnerable to Hacking, for example), I reached out to him immediately. “Can I just tell you that my mother sent me this article about your research? Do you have time to talk?”
Jay was out in Las Vegas this morning, attending the Black Hat security conference, but he and I had a chance to hash it out over the phone.
“I know you! And I know you as a diabetic, not as this guy who hacks insulin pumps and has a billion articles floating around about it on the web right now. I have a few questions. Starting with, why did you decide to hack into your own insulin pump?”
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
