Doing Basal testing the simple way - a new, free, tool

[tim2000s]

Yes, you read that correct. The #wearenotwaiting and OpenAPS crew have put together a tool-set that will take in Nightscout data and calculate your basal rates, whether they are set correctly and whether your Insulin Sensitivity factor and carb sensitivity factor are good, based on the empirical data in Nightscout. There are more details about it here: https://diyps.org/2017/01/20/autotu...-carb-ratio-with-openaps-and-even-without-it/

Essentially, as long as your glucose and insulin dose data is fully uploaded in Nightscout, you can run this tool to tell you whether your rates are good or bad, and what might need to change. It's currently a live "Beta" and can only cope with a single ISF. We've reached out to the likes of Diasend to see if they'd be willing to provide data from their system in such a way that it can also be used for this.

An example of the output is below. If you are using Nightscout, it's well worth a look, as it makes reviewing basals really easy!

 

[Brunneria]

Bump

 

[AndBreathe]

I'll bump this again, @tim2000s .

 

[tim2000s]

Just a brief update (my how fast the world of #wearenotwaiting works). If you are using Nightscout with MDI and recording all data there, it will also work for that. That's right.

Setup a nightscount site (www.nightscout.info for details) and put all the data you have into it (blood tests, insulin, carbs), or use glimp for Libre to put scanned data in (with carbs and insulin), or simply convert a spreadsheet to the input file (people have been writing the instructions here: http://openaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/docs/walkthrough/phase-4/autotune.html?highlight=Autotune

If you capture 24-48 hours of data, you can then run the tool and get results. Instant basal testing results and no fasting periods.

 

[jemmaedias]

Thanks Tim. This sounds amazing! I've been using the Freestyle Libre and discovered huge changes in insulin sensitivity. My DSN says I should have my pump by Easter now and we are looking for a date to get started. I'm going to look into NightScout. Do I need to be on a pump to use the NightScout or can I use it to plan ahead and quicken up the basal rate testing stuff? Please can you clarify how to use this with Libre?

 

[tim2000s]

Do I need to be on a pump to use the NightScout or can I use it to plan ahead and quicken up the basal rate testing stuff? Please can you clarify how to use this with Libre?

If you have an Android phone with NFC, you can use Glimp to upload Libre data to Nightscout - detailed instructions here: http://www.nightscout.info/wiki/welcome/nightscout-for-libre

It should be possible to take the data that you can output from the Libre app and convert it to a file of the format needed to run the tools locally on a PC, but that's a bit more involved and no-one has created that converter yet (although someone mentioned trying to do it in the gitter.im/intend-to-bolus channel).

There's a version of the tool that runs with MDI data, so as long as you are recording your carbs and insulin alongside your glucose data, you don't need a pump, and you definitely don't need a pump to log information on NightScout.