Friday, March 30, 2012

Site Selector

Yesterday evening, Site Selector appeared on the iOS App Store. If you don't already know, it's a graphical log of where you're wearing you insulin pump and CGM. Since they lose effectiveness at different rates, sites can be reused with different frequencies, and their schedules are generally different, it can be difficult to keep on track of proper rotation. I didn't have trouble until getting the Dexcom, but I needed help and doing it on paper just didn't have the right accuracy.

So this is my first app. I've been doing web apps for pushing ten years, but this is my first iOS App. I used Phonegap, which lets you write native applications with HTML & Javascript. Used Sencha Touch 2 for the interface. There are other technical details on the project's Github page. (That's right. The webapp is open source).

Of significant importance with medical apps is your privacy. This log lives entirely on your device. It never touches the Internet. (If Apple decides to start replicating your data across devices, or backups, or..., or..., or...; that's different. I never push your data to the internet. I can't promise that Apple doesn't.) This also has the downside that all your data lives on the device. I hope it's safe. I've taken steps within the app to keep your data safe. But there's always the potential your phone takes a bath and the data disappears. It's possible an upgrade goes badly, and your data disappears. Perhaps a volcano halfway across the world erupts, and your data is swallowed in a river of lava. I don't think so, but the unexpected can happen. So best not to instantly forget where you've placed sites.

In the time this app has been under review by Apple, I've worked on bug fixes, and new features. The interface is a little easier to use. It's faster. Both insertion and removal dates are tracked. Times are now tracked. You can look up to 90 days into the past, to see sites from long, long ago.

One other feature I'm working on, and may be in the next release, or may not, is a CSV export. What that means is the data you enter can be transformed into a spreadsheet. Right now, I'm investigating what's possible, how to make that data available to you (Email? In iTunes? Copy/Paste? Haven't decided yet). I think that will be a useful feature, but want to get it right. And it'll make me feel a whole lot better about your data not living on the cloud: if your phone takes a bath one day, at least you'll have had the opportunity to back it up.

So that's Site Selector: It's available on almost all iOS devices. At least everything that runs iOS 4. Should even be attractive with the newest iPad, as it ships with insanely high resolution images.

Last: This is an opensource webapp based around Sencha Touch. Sencha Touch is supported on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and a couple of others. Phonegap has similar compatibility. I'm not especially interested in building or submitting for these other platforms, but if you are, go for it. Shoot me an email (site selector at alternate interior dot com) so we can coordinate but I'm all for this application being more accessible to people.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Brian,
    I use both a pump and a CGMS. I'm also happy when I find apps that are actually useful for diabetic stuff for my iOS devices. Thanks for making this!

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    Replies
    1. Glad to hear you like it. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any wouldnt-it-be-cool ideas or problems with it!

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