Downloading data

[Tim]

All meters and pumps come with software for “analysing” their blood glucose results. Does anyone regularly do this? If so, why? If not, why not?

[Annette A]

When I first got mine with my accutrend spirit combo, I did. It gave lovely graphs to show the DSN. But the downloads of the useful figures (ie bg tests, carbs, bolus and basal rates) were downloaded in a way that was totally unusable even for a geek-it took me 5 or 6times as long to manipulate the data into usable/readable form as to enter it into my own spreadsheet. So when I upgraded my pc to Windows 7 and discovered that the software no longer ran, I wasnt too upset-gave me a reason not to use it. It may now work (upgrades do keep being written), I just cant be bothered with it-my DSN never understood the reports it gave anyway, so why waste the time on it?

[Anonymous]

My doc likes downloading data from my aviva via the smart pix, where we have a ;

[Alison]

I don’t share well when it comes test results, I hate showing them to other people so generally don’t (I know it’s weird, I think it comes from too many irritating conversations along the years of “I see you were a 17 a week last Wednesday, why do you think that was?” which have scarred me to the point where unless I’m married to you, I probably won’t let you see my BG results!)

When I first got my CGM I decided to be brave and download my results and take them in to show my DSN. She looked completely bewildered by the whole thing so I reverted back to simply not sharing my results, I much prefer that! I never download my meter readings, I did download occassionally in the early days of CGM and once you got your head around the data if was quite useful, but nowadays I never seem to get round to it.

[Hairy Gnome]

I download the data from my meter on a fairly regular basis, mainly because it allows me to see trends and averages. I also use the data to try and relate my BG levels to particular meals or food groups, not always successfully. At least my DSN understands the results, and any comments I make can help in the overall management decisions.

[lizz]

I have a new Contour USB thingy and downloaded results from it. Half an hour later and none the wiser I decided I must have lost most of my IQ in my frequent hypos. But then maths never was my strong subject.

[Stephen]

I download mine regular, but I’m just like that Reams of diabetic history on the bookcase ….. granted I’ve been a lot more committed since the pump as that’s my portable logbook nowadays (compared to days of just downloading the blood results and having to enter the rest manually …….)

Though I still use @annette ‘s XLS in my DropBox (I’m never more than 2 metres from a computer,) and use that for my own purposes!

[Tim]

I think I don’t bother downloading my results as I don’t really get much benefit from doing so. A bunch of graphs is all very well, but the computer should be able to analyse said data and point things out to you – “It looks like you’re going high after breakfast”, “You’re having lots of hypos mid-afternoon”. This – according to a more mathmatical friend of mine – would be relatively easy to do, but no one does do it. Bah!

[lizz]

What about getting your mathematical friend to suggest he does it to the pharmaceutical bods? Shame them!

[Author]

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