ChaosTracker

Diabetes Visualization Software

Show Me My Data!

As the name implies, ChaosTracker is a tool to improve blood glucose management by allowing you to look at more than just insulin, exercise and carbs. The Tracker portion allows you to keep track of common events, such as more or less sleep than usual, as well as custom user-defined events, like alcohol intake. There is a free-form text field to capture anything else going on during the day as well – meals, observations, other autoimmune symptoms, whatever. Then in the viewer, you can look at the tracker notes along with your meter, pump, and CGM data – really see all that went into your day. You can scroll or select certain days to view in an overlay. You can also search by any of the event checkboxes in the tracker, to bring up only the days you had “weird food”, or “unexplained lows” or whatever. Then you can scroll the selection forward and backward in time. A nagging suspicion that your BG is much more stable the first two days after opening a new bottle of insulin? Look it up! Wondering whether an hour of yoga is more useful than an hour of walking? No problem – make custom events for “yoga” and “walking” and compare.

When will ChaosTracker be available?

ChaosTracker will be coming soon. “Soon” of course depends on free time around work, family, and diabetes – but, things are going really well. The Tracker portion is 90% done – in fact, I’ve been using it every day for two months. The viewer still needs some work – mostly scrolling of overlayed data, and ways to adjust the colors of the lines and the settings of the main chart. I’m hoping to have it ready for at least a few different brands by the end of the summer.

How much will ChaosTracker cost?

I’m really not trying to become rich off this. I’m a patient, like you, and I’m frustrated with the existing software. That said, I do need to give myself some incentive (or, let’s face it, guilt) that will make me spend my free time working on ChaosTracker, rather than my other interests. I’m thinking of selling it for $20 – that’s around the price of a bottle of test strips, or a copay. But seriously, if you are choosing between a bottle of test strips and buying the software, just contact me and we’ll work something out.

What pumps, CGMs, and meters does ChaosTracker support?

The cool thing about ChaosTracker is that once the main product is working, adding new devices is pretty simple (I got a new Animas pump and was able to add a reader for it in only a few hours). Right now, I am using what I have – a Dexcom Seven, Animas Ping (also 1200 and up export formats), and OneTouch meters. Here’s a table of what I’m looking at – if you don’t see your brand here, please write to me, and I’ll add it to my list

Does ChaosTracker have a multiple user mode, for families with more than one pumper?

Not yet. But that will probably be added once the base product is done.

What about a multiple patient version, for clinics and doctors offices?

I would love to get this working that way. Imagine going to your doctor’s office, letting them download everything right there, and being able to look together at problem areas without having to remember which days to look at. That is a little more involved than the basic product, though, so it will take longer.

What platforms will ChaosTracker run on? Is my data going to be available on the web? Will this be a download, or what?

First things first – ChaosTracker is written in Java, so it can run on PCs, Macs, Linix, whatever. I’d like to do a small-screen version for an iPhone too – but again, I need to finish the base product. And although a web-based version is possible, that runs into many issues of data security and patient data privacy, issues which I am not yet ready to tackle. As for distribution, I’m toying with the fact of sending it out on its own Flash drive – one of those keychain-sized USB drives, with all you need to run on it. That makes for no setup problems and lets you take ChaosTracker with you wherever you want to go – home, office, or the doctor’s.

I’d like to see ChaosTracker available quicker. How can I help?

Well, for starters, email me (info (at) ChaosTracker (dot) com). I’m going to need sample export files (please don’t send until I ask for it, getting too many will just bog me down) and some beta testers, who would be willing to try using a not-quite-there-yet product, especially for the platforms and diabetes devices I don’t have.

Link to my DiabetesMine Design Challenge entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pusktXSivyc

For more information, email me at info@chaostracker.com