We interviewed Toni Ruiz, a SocialDiabetes user, to learn more about how incorporating the app in his day-to-day life benefited his life. Toni has had Type 1 diabetes since 1992 and was first diagnosed at age 10 (he even spent his birthday in the hospital that year!).
Toni, could you tell us in one sentence how you use SocialDiabetes and what you’ve gained from using it?
SocialDiabetes is a tool I use to track my glucose levels, as it allows me to see my progress from different points of view.
How has our app specifically benefited you?
More than anything, SocialDiabetes has helped me draw precise conclusions to help me with my insulin doses. The different real-time graphs helped me detect overall trends that would have been difficult for me to track otherwise.
Your glucose levels are affected by different factors every day. You might have the capacity to choose at certain moments how to adapt your insulin dosage. With SocialDiabetes, you can also see if your blood glucose levels are generally higher at certain times of the day and therefore act accordingly. It comes in handy to help me better understand the daily dynamics of my diabetes.
What feature do you like best?
I actually like two: the various graphs and the alerts. The estimation of my HbA1c is extremely useful as well. Before using SocialDiabetes, I would only be able to view this information in a blood test or during a hospital visit. Of course, it’s an estimate and I know it’ll depend on the data that I put into the application myself, but it is still a very valuable information.
In the future, how do you think the treatment and personal management of diabetes will evolve and what changes would you like to see?
Recent improvements such as the Freestyle powered continuous monitoring are really heartening. In my case, having all this extra information helps me make decisions about my health with much more confidence. With that said, I would expect to see even more progress around this type of innovation, including longer-lasting smaller sensors, etc. If I’m thinking ahead of bigger changes, I suspect we’ll see oral insulin delivery or something to that effect, ending the need for injections 🙂
SocialDiabetes in one sentence.
The best application on the market for diabetes management.
Thank you, Toni, for taking the time to answer our questions and for being a part of the SocialDiabetes community!
Toni Ruiz, PhD
Project Manager, Technology Business Development.
Barcelona
