My Diabetes Home has kicked off 2014 with a slate of new features designed to help diabetes patients communicate and share information with their doctors. The platform has also added low and high blood sugar alerts so that diabetes patients have potentially life-saving information at their fingertips.
The site is a labor of love from endocrinologist and Iowa Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center founder Dr. Anuj Bhargava. Getting started with a free 90-day My Diabetes Home trial is as easy as providing and verifying an email address.
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Your home dashboard shows some profile information, lets you enter your latest blood glucose check and also stats including weight, blood pressure and your three-month average blood glucose (AC1). If your latest blood glucose number is too high or too low, then an alert lets you know what steps you should take to address the problem.
The dashboard generates articles that you can view as well as news about recent diabetes developments. A tab called "Research I Can Join" directs you to existing studies in your area.
At the top of your home page, you'll see a series of tabs. The newest tools can be found under the "myVisits" tab. The Doctor Visit Manager lets you record your appointments online and set up reminders so that you don't miss your doctor visits. Also, the VisitOptimizer synthesizes all of your records so that you can print them out and take them to your doctor; alternatively, you can email them or fax them to your doctor.
The first tab, "myProfile," lets you enter information about your health history, as well as your team of doctors and the pharmacies that you use. The "myMeds" tab offers a search field so that you can find out information about each of the medications that you either currently take or want to discuss with your doctor.
The next tab, "myNumbers," lets you enter your numbers from your annual physical, including cholesterol levels and blood pressure. One column displays goals so that you know whether your labs are normal or whether they need attention.
My Diabetes Home is a great platform that is easy for any patient to use. The only negative is that the website is very slow. I tested it using the Google Chrome browser and found that some pages took over a minute to load. Also, if they asked me (and they didn't), then I'd tell them to promote their mobile apps more visibly. Patients can connect to My Diabetes Home using either an iOS or Android device.
Although speed is an issue, once the team behind the site figures everything out, this platform will be a godsend for patients with diabetes, their doctors and their caregivers. After the trial, patients pay $19.99 per year to continue to access premium features. In my opinion, it's a bargain considering all of the valuable information and tools that the site has to offer.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
