Part 3: A Few of Our Favourite Features

Just like proud parents, we’re going to tell you about some of the wonderful qualities and traits of D Sharp. We adoringly created this product, so forgive us if we’re a little biased.

The first thing we love is D Sharp’s ability to work on many devices. This can be hard to explain in a world of native apps and device-specific software, but because D Sharp is hosted in the cloud and built using HTML5, you can access it from any device with an Internet connection.

D Sharp is designed to work just as well on your smartphone as your computer or tablet. It’s the only mobile diabetes management app hosted in the cloud, so you can start using the app even if you don’t have a smartphone or are thinking of switching platforms. Your data isn’t stored on your device, so you never have to give up your information.

I have an iPhone, but sometimes I log from my laptop or ask my husband to make an entry from his Samsung Galaxy S, which uses Android. My Nook does the trick, too. I suspect the e-reader approach is going to be a great option for a lot of people without smartphones.

A single-entry interface is central to D Sharp’s design. Whether you’re logging blood glucose, carbs, weight or blood pressure, just start with the new entry button. Other apps that I tried forced me to go in and out of different tabs or screens to record metrics such as medicine and exercise separately. Personally, I found this very time consuming.

Plus, D Sharp customizes your experience during sign-up, so you’ll only see the measures specific to your care. I had very clear ideas on how I wanted to record my diabetes. I knew I wasn’t going to use it if I couldn’t tailor the experience.

Diabetes involves some pretty complicated math. Counting carbs and calculating insulin requirements for a quick snack can get difficult, especially when a correction for a high or low is needed. My insulin pump has a feature to help with this, but many people with diabetes can’t afford a pump or have decided this therapy isn’t right for them.

The D Sharp insulin calculator uses the user’s ratios and insulin type to suggest a dose based on grams of carbs and active insulin. This can make snack time and meals a little easier and for pump users, it speeds up the logging time.

I found staying on top of my diabetes most challenging when I go for six months between doctor’s visits. I tend to be most diligent right before I see the doctor. There’s nothing like someone else scrutinizing my numbers to make me behave, which is why D Sharp sends a weekly progress report to encourage you to spot trends in the graphs and charts. The “big picture” view can be a lot easier to reflect upon than numbers here and there on your glucometer.

We have many other features that we created to make managing diabetes a little easier. We’ll explain more about each of them and why they were designed as we go along.