I also imported my labs from patient.labcorp.com. I hadn’t thought about it until I was on the import screen, but all your lab reports you ordered via Marek are also available on the patient.labcorp website, just have to create an account.
Lastly, I imported Dexcom G7 data.
Just another data aggregator, is my initial impression. The ‘chronic conditions’ thing seems like a maketing statement. But only my vague first impression.
This is useful to me as it
makes most of my Kaiser data easier to peruse, compared to the Kaiser website.
chronologically integrates the Labcorp labs with Kaiser labs
I’ll still maintain a spreadsheet, as it is just easier to eyeball data across time and across labs on a single screen.
21 years of data uploaded in a few minutes - wow, that seems pretty amazing. Let us know how well it works for you. its a fairly new product I think, so there are bound to be bugs.
Jim Taylor, a research scientist with Google Health, knows a thing or two about taking temperatures. That’s because in addition to his role at Google, he’s also a pediatrician. “The first thing I ask a parent when they call and say ‘My child has a fever’ is ‘What’s their temperature?’” he says.
For six years, Jim has been part of the team at Google Health working to bring health tools to Pixel phones. One of the first of those tools is the new body temperature feature in the Thermometer app for Pixel 8 Pro. Part of the January Pixel feature drop, it allows you to quickly scan a person’s forehead with your phone and measure the body temperature. In clinical trials, our software algorithm was able to calculate body temperature in the range of 96.9°F - 104°F (36.1°C - 40°C) to within ±0.3°C when compared with an FDA-cleared temporal artery thermometer. In layman’s terms, this means the Pixel body temperature feature is about as accurate as other temporal artery thermometers.
Here’s something else I found interesting from the Withings company - a home body weight smart scale that measures Pulse wave velocity of blood. Seems kind of like a home CAC (coronary artery calcium) test. https://www.withings.com/us/en/pulse-wave-velocity
There’s a reason smartwatches haven’t replaced clinically validated gear when you visit the hospital — accuracy and reliability are paramount when the data informs medical procedures. Even so, researchers are looking for ways in which these devices can be meaningfully used in a clinical setting. One project in the UK has explored if a Garmin Venu 2 and dedicated companion app could be used to free up doctors and nurses, six minutes at a time.
The Six Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is used to diagnose and monitor a number of cardiovascular maladies. This includes conditions like Pulmonary Hypertension that, if left untreated, are eventually fatal. “[The test has been] a cornerstone of hospital practice and clinical trials for decades all around the world as […] a marker of how well the heart and lungs are working,” project leader Dr. Joseph Newman told Engadget. While a change in a blood test marker might be clinically relevant, he said “it’s probably more important to someone that they can walk to the shop and back.”
The test requires a patient walk on a flat, hard surface for six minutes straight, which stresses the heart enough to measure its capacity. A professional tests the patient’s heart rate and blood oxygen levels at the start and end. While it’s simple and reliable, “it’s not perfect,” according to Dr. Newman. “This is why we’ve looked to change it in two important ways,” he said, “can we make it shorter […] and digitize it for remote use?”
After all, six minutes is a lifetime in a clinical setting, and patients dislike having to schlep all the way to their hospital just to walk up and down a corridor. It’s why Newman and Lucy Robertson — both researchers at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge — began looking for ways to revolutionize the test. They wanted to see if the test could be shortened to a single minute, and also if it could be carried out by a patient at home using a Venu 2.
Goes along with something that I saw on the internet that said - When you’re out and about, just look around, you can tell how long somebody will live by how fast they are walking.
Ever since then, I’ve walked a lot faster.
The sensor will be worn on the upper arm, and it lasts for up to 15 days before it needs to be replaced, according to Dexcom’s website.
(Prior ones from Dexcom have onlu been 10 days)
The platform will be tailored for the needs of these Type 2 patients, he said, which means it will not include many of the alerts and notifications meant for diabetes patients at risk of experiencing more serious emergencies.
“It’s designed to be a simpler experience,” Leach said in an interview. “There’s a lot of people who could benefit.”
Leach said as Dexcom is able to demonstrate the benefits of Stelo, the company believes insurance companies will eventually pay for it. He said Dexcom decided to get the product out to the market at an “approachable” cash pay price first to help get it into users’ hands quickly.
“I think it’s important for people to have that insight — it’s like a mirror into their body,” he said. “It’s very personal.“
Yes - I’ve seen that in ads on social media. I’m wondering if something like that, combined with some sort of rapamycin rinse might be a good combination.
Yes, that’s a shame! They are much more expensive too.
I bought some Libre 3 in France but then found out that they are geo-fenced and only work with a French smartphone. So I had to find an old phone and put a French SIM card in it.
With Dexcom it’s even worse; they geo-fence with GPS + cellular data so that if you’re abroad on holiday and log out from the app you cannot log in again…
Anyone clear on why the original cgms were prescription only in the US but this new one is OTC? What’s different ? Aside from the money grab, what’s the rationale?
might be that the first FDA cleared ones were for people with Type 1 Diabetes where the consequence of getting the readings wrong can generally be more dire
the new approval seems to be for a larger group of Type 2 diabetes where the burden on the technology’s accuracy it not the same
for instance the Dexcom 6 and 7 can control a T1D patient’s insulin pump I think and so far the FDA has not allowed them to increase the number of days those sensors can be worn to 14 days and they are still only approved for 10 days.
this new direct to Stelo is probably not allowed (and probably not interphase compatible) to control a T1D person’s diabetes pump (it might also be that that type of approval would not have been avaialbe until now when there are more years of data of CMG safety, so they had to start with where the benefit was vs the potential risks), on the other hand, the FDA seemed to be ok with the Dexcom platform being used for 15 days in this population where the risk of errors is smaller.
in general the US FDA is more strict on medical devices than EMA is for CE mark… so it may or may not be Dexcome driving this vs the FDA
it’s also likely that the latest product Stelo, was done in a way that they will be are able to reach consumers directly even if they cannot publicly say that - in that sense they are actually trying to help “us” and fitness community get access without need for prescriptions, etc.
