DiabetesPilot for iPhone: Diabetes management in your pocket (review)

Summary: DiabetesPilot for the iPhone makes sophisticated control of the disease as easy as pulling the phone out of your pocket.

Articles covering mHealth tools are very popular as smartphones can play integral roles in helping manage chronic health issues. Apps for managing diabetes are evolving as primary tools in daily care for many afflicted with the disease. A diabetic spends a significant effort constantly tracking his/her diet, glucose levels, exercise, weight, and insulin usage over time.

The DiabetesPilot app for the iPhone is not the cheapest solution, but it works in tandem with a desktop app to track every facet of the diabetic’s life.

I was previously using the Track3 app for the iPhone (reviewed here), but found it falling short in the reporting area. While a good solution for easily entering information, the app was lacking in the ability to produce detailed printed reports and charts to share with my healthcare provider.

DiabetesPilot is very good at that, and while expensive at $14.99 I find it worth the cost.



This review doesn’t cover the desktop program, but concentrates on strictly the iPhone app.

There are Mac and Windows versions of the desktop app. I use the Mac version ($29.99), and the ability to sync the desktop data with the iPhone via Wi-Fi keeps both apps up-to-date. The sophisticated reporting is compliments of the desktop version, as the iPhone app is only capable of very basic charts and graphs. The iPhone app is self-contained, so even though the desktop app has better reporting it is not required. There is a free trial of the desktop app to test it prior to plunking down the relatively high cost.                More

Video: Researchers Watch Type 1 Diabetes As It Unfolds, in Real Time

T Cells Attacking This image, captured from video, shows the T cells (purple dots) attacking the pancreatic islets (green images in center), which contain the insulin‑producing beta cells. Beta cell destruction leads to type 1 diabetes. The attack continues over several hours before a number of beta cells are destroyed. La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology

A new real-time view of immune cells attacking the pancreas sheds light on how type 1 diabetes unfolds, as white blood cells seek out and destroy insulin-producing beta cells. Researchers believe it could help point the way to new intervention methods to halt the destruction before the onset of type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes.

Diabetes results from the body’s lack of ability to produce sufficient insulin, which keeps blood glucose levels in check. Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s T lymphocytes attack and kill the pancreas’ insulin-making beta cells; type 2 also involves pancreatic destruction and can result from several factors, though in this country it is often the result of poor diet and obesity. There is no cure, at least not yet. Watching exactly how the destructive process unfolds could be a major step in that direction, however.

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology used two-photon excitation microscopy and a new imaging technique to access a live, functioning pancreas in a mouse. The pancreas is small, soft and tucked away beneath other organs in the abdominal area, so it’s difficult to see in action. This study marks the first time researchers have used two-photon microscopy to study the pancreas (it’s previously been used to image the liver, lymph nodes and some other organs).                   More