FDA Approves Smartphone App for Insulin Delivery
Smartphones have changed our lives drastically and made so many things easier, including managing your diabetes. But the one thing smartphones haven’t been able to do before for people with diabetes is actually deliver a dose of insulin. Now, however, there’s an app for that.
The Food and Drug Administration has just approved the first-ever app for Android and iPhone that is capable of pairing with an insulin pump in order to provide insulin doses to people with diabetes.
The app, called the t:connect mobile app, pairs with the t:slim X2 insulin pump. Both products hail from the company Tandem Diabetes Care.
“This FDA clearance further validates our commitment to innovation and the diabetes community by providing one of the most requested feature enhancements,” said John Sheridan, president and CEO of Tandem Diabetes Care.
Indeed, this is perhaps the most awaited smartphone app in the diabetes community. While insulin pumps are getting better over time, they have not historically been very user-friendly. Being able to use a smartphone app to control your insulin pump could make dosing much easier and more intuitive.
In the future, when more insulin pumps can connect to apps, this feature might also mean not needing to learn a new system anytime you get a new pump. And as new updates come out for the app, users will be able to reap the benefits without having to purchase a new product.
The app also displays alerts and alarms from the pump and shows the past 24 hours’ worth of glucose trends for the user. Wireless uploading to the Cloud is also available.
At this time, the app is only used for bolus insulin dosing. Regular, longer-term insulin doses won’t be available on the app until later.
The app is already available in the app store, although the feature has not yet been rolled out. For those who already have the app, a simple software update will add the insulin-dosing feature when it becomes available.
We’re interested to see how this feature changes people’s lives for the better!
