Diabetes Technology Blog

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Keeping up with health news via Twitter

I don't know if you already use Twitter. On the surface it's a strange service where people leave messages (140 characters or less) about what they're doing.

Twitter gives you a simple web interface for posting messages, though you can also send them using text messaging on your phone. And you can Jott messages to Twitter. Plus Twitter allows you to follow the twitter messages (also called tweets) from other people.

But Twitter can be used to do things like enter blood glucose readings into SugarStats.

And today I found out that the New York Times has Twitter accounts for various parts of the newspaper, including the Health section. So you can use Twitter to keep up with health updates from the New York Times.

Yesterday the Times had an interesting article about diabetes-related new findings on diabetes and last year they ran the Bad Blood series on diabetes.

Using Twitter to keep up with Times articles about diabetes could be a great way to stay informed.

Labels: diabetes, NYT, SugarStats, Twitter

Friday, August 17, 2007

Twittering SugarStats

Marston and the folks at SugarStats.com have added a great new feature. Now you can add blood glucose readings and other information to your SugarStats logs from Twitter.

What's Twitter?

Twitter is a simple web application that lets you update your contacts with what you're doing. It limits your updates to 140 characters, because you can tweet from your phone. When you first start using it, it feels strange. But it turns out to be a useful way to keep in touch with others.

To see how it works in practice, check out what I'm tweeting about?

If you haven't already tried SugarStats, I think you'll enjoy the logging and graphing facilities. With Twitter integration, they've made it even easier for you to keep all this information up to date.

And SugarStats lets you share the data with people in protected ways. I think it's a preview of what Personal Health Records for diabetes will look like in the future.

Labels: diabetes, PHR, SugarStats, Twitter