4 ms·

> and defacto pushing that globally? There is no need for a global push; prices outside the US are substantially lower already. See https://pharmanewsintel.com

by RvdV 5y ago

> and defacto pushing that globally? There is no need for a global push; prices outside the US are substantially lower already. See https://pharmanewsintel.com/news/insulin-prices-8x-higher-in-the-us-compared-to-similar-nations https://pharmanewsintel.com/news/insulin-prices-8x-higher-in...

after_care 5y ago
There are other benefits besides price to open source.
- project2501a 5y ago
  Such as?
  - steveklabnik 5y ago
    Here's one that isn't about the insulin itself, but is about diabetes. Some diabetics use a "continuous glucose monitor" to read their blood glucose levels regularly. The information to that device is fed into an app on your phone (for newer devices) that visualizes the data for you. It doesn't just visualize though, it can also give you alerts. This is an incredibly useful feature! Unfortunately, at least in the ones I have experience with, the metrics they give you to be able to alert on are not good enough. For example, you'd think that "give me an alert when I go below x value" is a useful alert, and it is. However, the app I use only lets me set two alerts: a "low" alert, with the values 100 to 60, and an "urgent low" with the values 55-40. (both are in increments of 5.) That is useful, but what if I want three alerts? What if I want a non-5 value? Sure, you can argue that this isn't necessary, but if it were open source, I would be able to build something to do exactly what I want. Okay, so that's the first issue here. But here's the real issue: the absolute value is useful, but what's more useful is the rate of change. What I truly want to be able to do is set an alert that says "hey if this suddenly drops 10 points, give me a high priority alert" no matter the absolute value. There have been situations where I've seen a sudden downturn from ~180, dropping by 15 each time, and you don't even know until it crosses that 100 threshold. Likewise, I've seen alerts about it going low because it went from 101 to 100. One of those is very serious, and one of those is irrelevant. This stuff would significantly increase quality of life. And it's one tiny part of this whole picture of this one condition.
    - ZucchiniZe 5y ago
      I know exactly that pain! I wish that there was some way for an alert if I'm dropping super drastically. I'm actually working on reverse engineering the dexcom share api in my free time to create something similar to sugarmate where you can get control of your data and do what you want with it. But for the time being, have you considered using share2nightscout[0] and grabbing the info into your own control so then you can do the alerting and analysis that you want? [0]: https://github.com/nightscout/share2nightscout-bridge https://github.com/nightscout/share2nightscout-bridge
      - steveklabnik 5y ago
        I have not personally seen this! I will check it out, thank you!
igorzx31 5y ago
Taxes outside the US are far higher.
- burnished 5y ago
  Yeah pity those poor fools with their.. stress free access to insulin and.. never having to watch a loved one die from not being able to afford insulin. But yeah, taxes.
  - marcusverus 5y ago
    By pretending that this is some kind of common occurrence, you are engaging in fearmongering. You're 10X more likely to be killed by lightning in the US than you are to die due to lack of insulin. According to this (sympathetic) website[0], ~4 people in the US die every year due to a lack of insulin. Meanwhile, ~40 people in the US are killed by lightning strike[1]. [0] https://rightcarealliance.org/actions/insulin/ https://rightcarealliance.org/actions/insulin/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike#Epidemiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike#Epidemiology
    - steveklabnik 5y ago
      These things are never cut and dry. This is presenting these absolutely clear-cut stories, but it's not like this sort of thing is accurately tracked in any way. One in four people who have diabetes report that they take less than they should due to cost. This has knock-on long-term health effects that can cumulate in an earlier death than would otherwise happen. Those effects will never be captured in the way that lightning strikes can be captured. Others die who were never formally diagnosed, and so wouldn't be captured in statistics like this. It goes on and on.
    - anonAndOn 5y ago
      >You're 10X more likely to be killed by lightning in the US than you are to die due to lack of insulin. But 100,000x[0] more likely to lose a foot due to lack of insulin than by getting it cooked off by a lightning strike. [0]Estimated. Not sure if they even track loss of limbs by lightning strikes since it's such a rare occurrence but the diabetic, poor and footless can be found in just about any major city.

by RvdV 5y ago

after_care 5y ago

There are other benefits besides price to open source.

project2501a 5y ago
Such as?
- steveklabnik 5y ago
  Here's one that isn't about the insulin itself, but is about diabetes. Some diabetics use a "continuous glucose monitor" to read their blood glucose levels regularly. The information to that device is fed into an app on your phone (for newer devices) that visualizes the data for you. It doesn't just visualize though, it can also give you alerts. This is an incredibly useful feature! Unfortunately, at least in the ones I have experience with, the metrics they give you to be able to alert on are not good enough. For example, you'd think that "give me an alert when I go below x value" is a useful alert, and it is. However, the app I use only lets me set two alerts: a "low" alert, with the values 100 to 60, and an "urgent low" with the values 55-40. (both are in increments of 5.) That is useful, but what if I want three alerts? What if I want a non-5 value? Sure, you can argue that this isn't necessary, but if it were open source, I would be able to build something to do exactly what I want. Okay, so that's the first issue here. But here's the real issue: the absolute value is useful, but what's more useful is the rate of change. What I truly want to be able to do is set an alert that says "hey if this suddenly drops 10 points, give me a high priority alert" no matter the absolute value. There have been situations where I've seen a sudden downturn from ~180, dropping by 15 each time, and you don't even know until it crosses that 100 threshold. Likewise, I've seen alerts about it going low because it went from 101 to 100. One of those is very serious, and one of those is irrelevant. This stuff would significantly increase quality of life. And it's one tiny part of this whole picture of this one condition.
  - ZucchiniZe 5y ago
    I know exactly that pain! I wish that there was some way for an alert if I'm dropping super drastically. I'm actually working on reverse engineering the dexcom share api in my free time to create something similar to sugarmate where you can get control of your data and do what you want with it. But for the time being, have you considered using share2nightscout[0] and grabbing the info into your own control so then you can do the alerting and analysis that you want? [0]: https://github.com/nightscout/share2nightscout-bridge https://github.com/nightscout/share2nightscout-bridge
    - steveklabnik 5y ago
      I have not personally seen this! I will check it out, thank you!

igorzx31 5y ago

Taxes outside the US are far higher.

burnished 5y ago
Yeah pity those poor fools with their.. stress free access to insulin and.. never having to watch a loved one die from not being able to afford insulin. But yeah, taxes.
- marcusverus 5y ago
  By pretending that this is some kind of common occurrence, you are engaging in fearmongering. You're 10X more likely to be killed by lightning in the US than you are to die due to lack of insulin. According to this (sympathetic) website[0], ~4 people in the US die every year due to a lack of insulin. Meanwhile, ~40 people in the US are killed by lightning strike[1]. [0] https://rightcarealliance.org/actions/insulin/ https://rightcarealliance.org/actions/insulin/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike#Epidemiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_strike#Epidemiology
  - steveklabnik 5y ago
    These things are never cut and dry. This is presenting these absolutely clear-cut stories, but it's not like this sort of thing is accurately tracked in any way. One in four people who have diabetes report that they take less than they should due to cost. This has knock-on long-term health effects that can cumulate in an earlier death than would otherwise happen. Those effects will never be captured in the way that lightning strikes can be captured. Others die who were never formally diagnosed, and so wouldn't be captured in statistics like this. It goes on and on.
  - anonAndOn 5y ago
    >You're 10X more likely to be killed by lightning in the US than you are to die due to lack of insulin. But 100,000x[0] more likely to lose a foot due to lack of insulin than by getting it cooked off by a lightning strike. [0]Estimated. Not sure if they even track loss of limbs by lightning strikes since it's such a rare occurrence but the diabetic, poor and footless can be found in just about any major city.