Reclaiming My Diabetes Data with Tidepool

I was surprised when the companion app for my blood glucose meter suddenly stopped working. At first, I thought it had just logged me out of my account, but then I realized the usual password recovery process, which had worked multiple times before, no longer did. After reaching out to the developer, I was informed that the company is withdrawing support for my country. Fortunately, the data remains accessible directly on the meter itself. I've just lost a convenient way to visualize the data with the companion app and act as a repository for related data, such as insulin dosage and timing, as well as laboratory results for comparison.

My initial reaction was to create a monitoring spreadsheet in Excel. However, I quickly realized this wouldn’t be an ideal solution. Spreadsheets are fiddly and prone to errors, especially since this approach would require a lot of manual data entry. What I really wanted was a tool that could replicate the reliability and accuracy of the original app’s wireless data downloads, perhaps a way to extract data through a USB cable in CSV format and then import it into an application already developed for this purpose.

While doing my research, I was pleasantly surprised to discover Tidepool: an open-source, patient-led, third-party app designed for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices. Even better, it also supports a broad range of models for single-test blood glucose meters and insulin pumps. I’m fortunate that it works with my particular meter model, and the wireless Bluetooth download functions seamlessly.

The community behind Tidepool is robust and passionate, composed of people directly affected by diabetes. The project thrives on collaboration; it’s open-source, with contributions from developers, clinicians, and patients alike. The organization itself is patient-led, with many team members living with diabetes.

A practical tip from my experience: during the initial data download from my meter, I had to keep pressing random buttons to prevent it from entering power-saving mode. If the meter sleeps mid-transfer, the download fails immediately with an error. So, if you haven’t synced your meter in a while and expect to download a large amount of data, be ready to keep it awake.

Overall, the application is working great. The uploading process is straightforward, and the reports are detailed and easily customizable.

I do have some suggestions for quality-of-life improvements that will make it even better.

I would love for the app to have a way to manually enter insulin dosing tracking. I can see it in the reports, but I could not figure out how it is done. Or maybe the information being tracked is for the insulin pumps.
It would be great to have manual input for HbA1c test results to compare with estimated values based on meter readings.
One downside for me is that the Android app doesn’t work on my device. It requires an older version of Android. I suspect some manual input features might be available there, but I haven’t been able to verify that.