Glucose sensor app said to be first third-party title to access Apple iPhone's NFC

As we all know, being “open” carries a lot of responsibility when dealing with security components, something many developers could care less about, especially android developers not used to worrying about any restrictions or security. 

This warning from the manufacturer’s site makes me wonder if this isn’t just a novelty.  After all, the entire point of checking finger-stick blood glucose levels is to get real-time results so that insulin can be dosed, or for a glucose log so that your doctor can adjust your oral medications.

WARNINGS/LIMITATIONS: The FreeStyle Libre Pro System does not provide real-time results and patients should adhere to their blood glucose monitoring routine while using the system.

I suppose that if the glucose values recorded are not real-time, but are accurate, they may be sufficient for someone that is not taking insulin, but even so, the manufacturer says to continue the finger-sticks while using this system.

And...

The FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring system is a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device indicated for replacing blood glucose testing and detecting trends and tracking patterns aiding in the detection of episodes of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia,

Note the “aiding in the detection of ... hypoglycemia”.  Now another quote.

IMPORTANT: The device may inaccurately indicate hypoglycemia. The results of the clinical study conducted for this device showed that 40% of the time when the device indicated that user sensor glucose values were at or below 60 mg/dL, user glucose values were actually in the range of 81-160 mg/dL.

Inaccurate 40% of the time!  That’s almost as bad as flipping a coin (50%), so it cant be trusted for hypoglycemia monitoring.  Hopefully the hyperglycemia monitoring is more accurate.

So in summary, you can use this device, but you still have to do the finger-sticks, and the device may be inaccurate.  Sounds like they have a long ways to go.

roake said:
Sounds like they have a long ways to go.

Indeed. I have a friend who's 'pre-diabetic' and controls it with diet and exercise but does the finger-stick thing at least daily, sometimes multiple times during the day. (I know nothing about this, it may be a common practice for some.) 

This Libre is great in concept and when much improved, will be a big improvement for many who need monitoring.

The first challenge its FDA approval.  If they have that then it can be assumed that the device will be somewhat reliable.  The second challenge is insurance (including Medicare and Medicaid) accepting and paying for the device and supplies.

The competition is going to push for improvements in performance/comfort of the entire market.

Overall I happy and will wait to see how things shake out (including linking with the Apple Watch) before investing.

It's been approved and used in Europe for a a couple of years now. I'm pretty sure FDA approval is around the corner. Medicare/Medicaid coverage is going to be a different story, as it's a significant cost increase over the lancet/test strip combo, so I assume in the beginning it will only be covered for special cases (children, people on blood thinners, etc...) and eventually be extended to all as production ramps up and costs go down. An amazing product and it's fantastic that they were able to work with Apple to access NFC. I know they've been supporting Android for a long time but required an external reader for iPhone, that was very disappointing.