Ascensia Diabetes Care adds analytics capabilities to self-management app

Ascensia Diabetes Care has updated its self-management app to help people with diabetes better understand fluctuations in their blood glucose levels.

The Contour Diabetes smartphone app connects to a digital glucose monitoring meter that allows patients to manage their condition at home. The app has now been updated to include a tool called My Pattern, which analyses data from the app to identify patterns in blood glucose readings.

For example, if a user regularly found they had high blood sugar level on a certain day of the week, the app will prompt them to think about what aspects of their diet, medication or exercise could have caused the spike. It will then send a notification to the user containing advice on how they can address it.

Ascensia is a global company dedicated to improving the health and lives of people with diabetes, which was established in 2016 through the acquisition of Bayer Diabetes Care by Panasonic Healthcare Holdings.

Ros Barker, country head for the UK and Ireland for Ascensia, told Digital Health News that it was ‘critical’ to give diabetics the proper tools for self-management.

Barker suggested that the app’s support of self-management set it apart from competitors.

“It has gone from being an electronic logbook, to being a smart tool that uses behavioural science to support patients in managing their diabetes,” she said.

The latest version of the app can recognise 14 patterns, with Ascensia hoping to add more in the future.

My Pattern is only being launched in the UK,  Ireland and Germany for now, however, Barker said it would eventually be rolled out across 25 additional countries.

“By launching it only in the UK and Ireland and Germany, it means we can make sure we get things right and can iron out any technical glitches which may arise,” she said.

In November, it was reported that NHS England, Public Health England and Diabetes UK had teamed up with a number of technology companies to test drive a number of digital platforms designed to tackle obesity and Type 2 diabetes.