Diabetes is a disease that impacts every facet of a patient’s life, starting each day upon waking and lasting until turning hitting the sack. The constant battle to keep the glucose level in a healthy range throughout the day by balancing medication and diet is a daunting task. Diabetics know the only chance to coordinate daily activity and the diet/medication ratio is through constant record keeping. The iPhone and the Track3 app make a wonderful combination to track all aspects of diabetes.
Track3 is designed to facilitate tracking the important criteria of diabetic life, focusing on four areas: glucose, insulin, medication, and weight. Each of these areas consists of entry screens where items needing to be logged are input. All glucose readings resulting from the famous (and painful) finger pricks are entered as they are metered. Entries are also easily entered to record insulin (including type) taken throughout the day. Other medications, such as oral doses, are entered in the appropriate section.
There is a sophisticated insulin calculator for Type 1 diabetics who need to compute dosage based on particular meals. This is done with a formula that uses criteria from the healthcare provider, adapted to the individual’s metabolism.
Diet plays a big role in the diabetic’s life, and Track3 is a wonderful tool for tracking the nutritional values consumed throughout the day. There is a database of hundreds of food items and popular restaurants to make it easy to log meals as they are eaten. The food items (and portions) can be adjusted on the fly to accurately record a log of all foods consumed.
Track3 logs all information input, and collates it into a number of reports and charts for helpful visual tracking. These reports can be shared with healthcare providers, replacing the need to keep paper logs.
The app is $4.99, and works on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. I use it on the iPhone as it doesn’t sync with multiple devices. The iPhone is always with me but the iPad is not always around when log entries are needed.
