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I went to Open Data Camp in the UK in 2023 and there was an interesting talk from two attendees with Type 1 diabetes about how locked down a lot of these device

by lol768 3y ago

I went to Open Data Camp in the UK in 2023 and there was an interesting talk from two attendees with Type 1 diabetes about how locked down a lot of these devices are from a data perspective, which seems like a real shame - particularly when it's your own health data they're collecting! CGM devices seems like the gold standard in terms of what they're natively capable of (and you don't need something separate on top of a flash sensor) and I think they're free on the NHS. Lots of them have companion smartphone apps, so you'd assume that it's possible to reverse engineer whatever API that these apps are using in order to get at the raw data. Dexcom seemingly does have an API, but it only works if you're located in the US.

secabeen 3y ago
From what I've gathered, the community has largely given up on trying to get at the raw data through Libre and Dexcom. That's not going to work in the long run, as Dexcom or Libre could cut it off at any time. The smarter solution is just to reverse-engineer the software component of these systems and take Dexcom/Libre out of the equation, or (even better) run a parallel system that does the data exporting you want. There are a number of open source solutions in this area. No guarantee that your physician will accept these, but they are pretty interesting, and very feature rich.
- croemer 3y ago
  T1D here. Luckily not true, exporting works well at least for Dexcom on Android with https://www.patreon.com/byod https://www.patreon.com/byod It's a patched app that broadcasts values it receives to any app that's listening, e.g. xdrip. Libre 2 has also got patches floating around on the internet.
- selimthegrim 3y ago
  I worked for a company that had licenses for Libre, Insulet and Dexcom and we had their serial APIs - but you had to plug it in to your computer, store the data at our colo and use a Java applet to view it in the browser. In 2014. Unsurprisingly mobile apps have had more uptake since.

by lol768 3y ago

secabeen 3y ago

From what I've gathered, the community has largely given up on trying to get at the raw data through Libre and Dexcom. That's not going to work in the long run, as Dexcom or Libre could cut it off at any time. The smarter solution is just to reverse-engineer the software component of these systems and take Dexcom/Libre out of the equation, or (even better) run a parallel system that does the data exporting you want. There are a number of open source solutions in this area. No guarantee that your physician will accept these, but they are pretty interesting, and very feature rich.

croemer 3y ago
T1D here. Luckily not true, exporting works well at least for Dexcom on Android with https://www.patreon.com/byod https://www.patreon.com/byod It's a patched app that broadcasts values it receives to any app that's listening, e.g. xdrip. Libre 2 has also got patches floating around on the internet.
selimthegrim 3y ago
I worked for a company that had licenses for Libre, Insulet and Dexcom and we had their serial APIs - but you had to plug it in to your computer, store the data at our colo and use a Java applet to view it in the browser. In 2014. Unsurprisingly mobile apps have had more uptake since.