A new smartphone feature for diabetics: Talking Tech podcast

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Hey there listeners, it's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Add one more feature to the Swiss Army Knife of tech that is our smartphone, the ability to deliver doses of insulin. I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.USAtoday.com. A company called Tandem Diabetes Care says that the Food and Drug Administration has cleared the first app for iPhone and Android devices that is capable of giving diabetes patients doses of insulin. In a statement, Tandem confirmed that its T-Connect mobile app, which pairs with an insulin pump, will allow diabetic users to administer a dose of insulin directly through their smartphone.

It's a really fascinating advancement. And again, it's just more evidence of how we're seeing tech play just a much larger role in taking care of our health. The feature is used for a specific type of insulin dosing where basically a user would get this to prevent glucose spikes after they've eaten a meal. The company says that the feature will be available for free through a software update. The company didn't say when the feature will launch, but again, one thing they note in their statement is it was one of the most requested features that a lot of their users had asked for. Not to mention, it's a really nice way to allow people to do this discretely.

Previously, users would be using their pump and would directly go to that in order to make any updates in terms of scheduling when they would get doses of insulin. Instead, they can do it right from their phone like they're on their smartphone and no one really notices. It's again, a very, very cool feature. And it's going to be interesting in the next few years because we have seen a lot of our devices play this bigger role in our health. And specifically with things like just day to day diagnostic type stuff.

We're talking about things like heart rate, we're talking about the Apple Watch slowly being able to check things like oxygenation in your blood. I wouldn't be surprised down the road we see more of these devices check things like blood pressure, And it's going to be really exciting to watch and see how tech is able to allow us to track our health more closely. I think in some ways it's really good. I think in some respects for me anytime something's wrong, I look it up online and I immediately am like, "Oh gosh, I have," I go to the worst case scenario. And sometimes I worry, is having too much information not necessarily a good thing?

But I do think where it matters and where it can really benefit people, I think it's nice to be able to have these tech options that allow people to manage their health more closely. You can read more about this in my story on tech.USAtoday.com.

Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @brettmolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.