I had a great time chatting with Anita. She is a Co-Founder of Glooko (www.glooko.com), a company that makes a cable and app for transferring readings from a handful of glucose meters into your smartphone.
We spent an hour talking about the path that Anita followed to get to where she is today, and where she sees herself, and Glooko, in the near future. We talked about the eye-opening experiences she had when she helped introduce tagging (pre-meal, post-meal, etc) into our meters, and when she helped launch the OneTouch meter that offered direct communications to an insulin pump.
She said something during the show that really tickled me, and makes a lot of sense. She said “we didn’t try to boil the ocean with our first release”, meaning that they are working fast and furious on new and improved versions, but didn’t want to wait for perfection before getting something beneficial out on the streets. One step at a time, both in regards to the technology and relationships, as well as the approvals and iterations from the FDA.
We were able to give away a couple of Glooko cables (congratulations Katrina and John), which was a lot of fun.
During the episode, Anita mentioned a couple of great blog posts:
- Why Can’t Meters Tell Me My Blood Sugar – Riva Greenberg has a great article on her frustrations with multiple blood glucose meters.
- The Sad State of Diabetes Technology in 2012 – Scott Hanselman talks about how pitiful diabetes technology is today.
Both are excellent reads, and I highly recommend you check them out. Besides, I’m a huge fan of both of those talented diabetes advocates, and I think you should be too.
The Glooko system is currently available for the iPhone, with an Android version in the works. Check the Glooko Website for a list of compatible meters.
The system can be purchased right from the iPhone App, through Amazon.com, or at Glooko.com.
Thank you, Anita! You helped make another great episode!
– Stream the show, Download the MP3 (~15MB), grab the podcast via iTunes, or listen below.
