My Sugr Vs Dario

[PeeBee12]

Hi, first time post. Type 3c following severe pancreatitis.

I have been using 'My Sugr' to calculate insulin requirements and I have recently had an HBA1c result of 6.8%. I have spoken to my support team and they have suggested that I look at the 'Dario' tester as this combines testing and calculating insulin needs in one app.

I have taken a look at the Dario app and compared suggested insulin needs suggested by each. I am concerned about the significant difference given. Let me explain. I have had lunch a couple of hours ago but to test the apps I entered that I was taking a banana as a snack and told both that I had a current BG level of 8.1. My Sugr suggested that I should take 5.0 units and Dario suggested no insulin. How can that be so?

I suspect that My Sugr is assuming that the insulin it is calculating as 'on board' will be used to continue to work on the carbs from my lunch, but I think Dario is assuming that all insulin 'on board' is available to deal with the new carbs from the banana and is overlooking the remaining needs from lunch. My Sugr asks, in set up, how long insulin lasts (I'm advised 4 hours) whereas Dario asks what Bolus insulin I am using (NovoRapid) and I assum Dario is working on the active life based on that for the specific Bolus insulin being used.

I am attracted to the Dario system but wouldn't want to loose the tight control that I have achieved with My Sugr.

I welcome your thoughts and coimments.

Peter

 

[Mep]

I use Dario, but I haven't been recording my carb and insulin into it so no comment about that part of it. Although I'd be interested to know what others think of it as I was considering starting to use it more extensively. My problem is I have so much going on and I tend to forget things that require entry. What I do like about Dario is it records all my levels and gives me stats and estimate of hbA1c.

 

[PeeBee12]

Hi, I contacted Dario yesterday and spoke to the UK Technical Suppoort Team. They told me that the Dario app assumes the insulin remains active in the body for five hours. My Sugr has a box to input your particualr insulin lifetime; I have this set to four houirs on the advice of my DSN. I was told that Dario will be addressing this with an app upgarde next week which will allow users to set their own figure. I will look out for this and recheck once the upgrade is received.

Incidently, when I compared Dario and My Sugr after five hours had elapsed they were very close. My Sugr suggested 5 units (it allows you to specify whole units or half units) and Dario suggested 4.8 units (I'm not aware of any pen devices that allow such accuracy but perhaps there are devices that allow this - in any case the difference is so little as to be of little consequence).

 

[PeeBee12]

I see that Dario has just released an update to the Android app which includes the facility to input the 'Duration of Insulin Action' which can be set to 3.5, 4, 4.5 or 5 hours. There is a warning that any change should be made in consultation with your support specialists. The version number of this latest app is 3.4.0.

I think that this now makes Dario equal to MySugr, the main differences as I see them are that MySugr rounds suggested insulin to half units, eg 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 etc, whereas Dario gives decimal points, eg 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc. But Dario has an inbuilt database of carbs in various foods, similar to that in 'My Fitness Pal' but not as extensive, whereas with My Sugr you need to calculate carbs outside of teh app.

I haven't yet run the new version of Dario and My Sugr side by side to see if they are giving the same suggested Bolus insulin figures, but I will do so and provide an update. Previously, when the last insulin was more than five hours past, they gave the same figures (excepting the rounding differences, eg My Sugr might give 5.5 whereas Dario would give 5.3).