My Diabetes Management Journey: Navigating the Highs and Lows with the "Center Health" App

Welcome to another edition of my weekly diabetes management newsletter. This week has been another challenging one, filled with unexpected highs and frustrating lows. Let me share what I've been going through, my ongoing fears, and a promising new tool I discovered that might just be the game-changer I've been looking for.

The Rollercoaster of Hypo and Hyper Episodes

Lately, I've been struggling with balancing my insulin doses. Despite my best efforts, I'm still experiencing hypo episodes because of the increased insulin units I’ve been taking. But when I try to reduce the dosage, my blood sugar levels skyrocket, reaching 16-17 mmol just two hours after a meal and staying there for hours. It's a delicate and exhausting balance.

The Fear of Hyperglycemia

One of my biggest fears is hyperglycemia. Having been admitted to the ICU with severe DKA before, high blood sugar levels now make me genuinely fearful. This fear drives me to seek patterns in my blood sugar fluctuations constantly, but so far, I've had little success in understanding them.

Searching for the Perfect App

In my quest to find tools that can help me better manage my diabetes, I’ve been on the lookout for new apps. This week, I stumbled upon an app that feels like a beacon of hope: Center Health.

Discovering Center Health

The Center Health app, with its integrated bot, Aria, has been a revelation. Aria monitors your blood sugar levels, communicates with you, and even thinks alongside you to provide personalized insights and support. Here's why I believe this app is a step in the right direction:

• Holistic Monitoring: Center Health consolidates all your diabetes data in one place, making it easier to track and analyze blood sugar trends. I love that it can connect to my Abbott LibreView, although there's still a slight gap between the sensor data and what’s shown in Center Health. However, I’m confident that over time, the integration will become more precise.

• Interactive Support: Aria, the bot, offers real-time advice and engages with you to help manage your condition more effectively. It's like having a virtual diabetes coach available 24/7. However, at the moment, Aria hasn't provided me with any new insights. The bot tends to reiterate information I already know and gives instructions rather than actively helping with tasks like calculating ratios and carbs. Incorporating an easy calculator API would be very beneficial here.
• User-Friendly Design: The app boasts a visually appealing design, clearly showing investment in its look and feel. However, it’s not as clean or simple as it could be. It feels like they included every conceivable feature, making it overwhelming—even for someone like me who has been searching for such an app for months. I believe that with a user-centered design approach, they can better tailor the interface to different user needs, showing relevant features to the appropriate users.

For those interested, you can find more about the Center Health app here.

What’s the main part that's missing in diabetes apps today?

Despite the promise that Center Health and other diabetes management apps hold, there are still gaps to be addressed. One major issue is the lack of user-centered design that accommodates the diverse range of personas among people with diabetes.

Diverse Personas, Diverse Needs

Diabetes care cannot be effectively divided only by age or gender. There are many different personas, including:

• Newbies: Those newly diagnosed, who need more educational resources and guidance.
• Experienced Managers: Long-term diabetics who have developed their own methods and need advanced, customizable tools.
• Low-Carb Enthusiasts: Users who follow a low-carb diet and need specific dietary tracking.
• Carb Lovers: Users who prefer a balanced diet that includes carbohydrates and need different management strategies.
• Children and Parents: Young diabetics and their caregivers, who require child-friendly interfaces and parental controls.
• Young Adults: Individuals balancing diabetes management with active lifestyles and busy schedules.
• Middle-aged and Older Adults: Users who might have additional health concerns and need integrated care management.

Each persona has unique habits, challenges, and physiological responses. This diversity means that a one-size-fits-all approach in app design is insufficient.

The Challenge: One App for All

Creating an app that caters to all these diverse personas without becoming overly complex is a significant challenge. Here are some thoughts on how we can achieve this:

• Modular Design: Develop the app with modular features that can be activated or deactivated based on user preferences and needs. This allows for customization without cluttering the interface for everyone.
• Personalization Through AI: Use AI to learn from individual user behavior and preferences, providing personalized insights and recommendations.
• Persona-Specific Interfaces: Offer different interface options tailored to various personas, such as educational tools for newbies, advanced analytics for experienced users, and parental controls for children.
• Comprehensive Integration: Ensure the app can integrate with various CGMs, insulin pumps, and other health devices to provide a seamless user experience.

Next Week: Conducting User Persona Research

Next week, we will dive into how we are conducting user persona research for a diabetes management app. Understanding the specific needs and challenges of each persona will be key to developing an app that truly supports everyone.

If you have inputs, ideas, or feedback, I would love to discuss them in the comments. Your experiences and insights are invaluable in helping create the best possible tools for managing diabetes.

#DiabetesManagement #CenterHealthApp #LivingWithDiabetes #AIForDiabetes #DiabetesSupport