NEW technology is helping a Frankston man with diabetes track his insulin doses.
Using a new insulin pen and app, users can transfer their data straight to their phone by touching the pen against it.
The FreeStyle LibreLink app is used to collect the data. Frankston man Philip Wood, who lives with type 1 diabetes, said the system helps relieve stress. “If you can do anything to take the burden off [living with diabetes], that’s going to help because it’s always in the back of your mind, and you’re always thinking about it,” he said.
Wood said the pen’s connection with the app “definitely would help remove the guesswork – weight changes, intensity of exercise, you have different sensitivity to insulin.”
The NovoPen 6 insulin pen is used alongside the FreeStyle Libre 2 Continuous Glucose Monitoring system and app to collect the data. Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute endocrinologist Neale Cohen said the system will “assist healthcare professionals enormously because we can now get more information about when patients are dosing, when they’re not dosing, and the effect that this has had directly on their glucose levels. So, this is certainly something that we would see as a major positive step in terms of our ability to manage these patients.”
“It is again, one of these small steps that really will make life easier for people managing their diabetes,” Cohen said.
It is estimated that more than 1.3 million Australians are living with diabetes.
The FreeStyle LibreLink app update can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.