Tandem Diabetes Launches the t:connect Diabetes Management Application
By Adam Brown
On March 25, Tandem Diabetes launched t:connect, its web-based diabetes management application (PC and Mac!) that downloads data from the t:slim insulin pump and seven different commonly used blood glucose meters (BGM). Stored information from the t:slim is uploaded to t:connect via the t:slim’s micro-USB cable (the same as the charger). The main display of t:connect is the Dashboard screen – a one-page summary that displays key information about a user’s insulin, blood glucose, and load activity (i.e., how often a cartridge or infusion set is changed). The main page is customizable and lets users easily glean the most important information. Other than the Dashboard and its simple, organized design, which we think is t:connect’s best quality, the diabetes management platform has relatively standard but highly practical features.
The other features of the the t:connect application are modal day insulin delivery and blood glucose graphs, time-in-range and insulin delivery pie charts, a logbook, and a function to export reports as PDFs or .csv files (which can open with Excel). We are hearing from many healthcare providers that time-in-range is an important statistic for learning about a person’s glycemic variability, which some healthcare providers believe can contribute to diabetes complications (this is still under research). t:connect’s major strength is that it organizes all of this data usefully and is practical so that pumpers and their healthcare providers can read it, interpret it, and take action.
Tandem’s t:connect is a valuable product for t:slim pumpers and their healthcare providers, though we’d like to see a few innovations in the future: pattern recognition and smart algorithms that provide treatment recommendations (e.g., your basal may be too high (or too low) from 4-7 am, or even better, you should change your basal to 0.65 units per hour from 4-7 am). We’re glad to see that Dexcom’s new Studio software for the G4 Platinum CGM and Medtronic’s CareLink Pro 3.0 (only available to healthcare providers) have pattern recognition and can alert users to problem times of the day. However, we hope future systems will go further and offer actionable advice for changing insulin therapy. Of course, such features would make it harder to get FDA clearance, but we hope Tandem and other companies will add these features with future software. To learn more about the t:slim and t:connect, read Adam’s test drive of the t:slim and Tandem’s guide to t:connect. –MN/AB