Not interested in recording your blood sugars but want them on your iPhone? Enter Glooko Logbook, a sync cable that connects your meter to your phone.

The founders of Glooko wanted an easier way to keep track of blood test readings and decided that rather than competing with the current meters on the market, they would work with them by adding to their functionality.

Glooko currently works with the following meters: Bayer Breeze2, Bayer Contour, Freestyle Freedom Lite, Freestyle Lite, OneTouch Ultra2, OneTouch UltraLink and OneTouch UltraMini. They are working toward adding other meters in the future. For now Glooko only works with iPhone and iPodTouch, however the company is exploring adding an iPad app and support for Android phones.

The free Glooko app is simple to use and keeps improving with each iteration. Let’s fire it up and get started.

From the home screen plug the cable into your meter and iPhone and tap “Sync.”

Syncing takes about a minute and a half [I only tested Glooko with OneTouch UltraMini]. Though it wasn’t a scientific study, the sync time doesn’t change much no matter how many BG reading it is downloading.

After you sync, you can tag each BG reading as Pre Meal, Post Meal or none. You also have the option to add notes, search the food database and automatically add food to your logbook.

The logbook is clean and easy to read. You can scroll down to see more and if you touch any specific reading the app takes you right to the History screen so you can see notes, carbs or insulin associated with an entry.

When it is time to share your results with your doctor, exporting to pdf or fax is a breeze. You can export two weeks or a month of data. Your exported logbook looks like this:

Choosing email export puts your pdf in an email. All you have to do is insert an email address. This is a great way to send data to your doctor or print it out yourself. Choosing to send as a fax opens an efax dialog. You enter to and from names, a fax number and off it goes.

Pros:

  • Glooko is simple to use and works with many popular BG meters
  • Syncing is a one touch operation and for those of you who aren’t capable of writing down readings (like me) Glooko will make your doctor happy
  • The food database can be quite helpful and automatically adds food to your data
  • Glooko is a small company and as such they are great at responding to questions about their product and its use

Cons:

  • As of this writing, there are no graphical representations of your data though Glooko is working on it. Right now it is considered a Class 1 medical device, meaning the app cannot manipulate data (to make a graph). It can only display what has been downloaded. The company is working toward bringing Class 2 designation which would allow graphs, averages, etc.
  • It takes a while for data to download. A problem easily solved by walking away for a minute. (I only used Glooko with OneTouch UltraMini. Times may be different with other meters.)
  • Cost. Glooko costs US$39.95 and ships free. Well worth the price. I have never heard of an insurance company paying for it. I am hoping convincing insurance becomes easier when the device becomes Class 2

The Bottom Line:

  • If you use one of the supported meters and your doctor has been on your case for years to record some of that data, give Glooko a try
  • is a small price to pay for this kind of convenience
  • With over 30 years of diabetes experience, the 3 founders are here to stay and are constantly looking to improve Glooko

[Update]

Glooko has updated their app with the following features:

Support for 4 new meters; Accu-Check Aviva, Accu-Check Aviva Nano, Accu-Check Compact Plus, Accu-Check Nano (These meters require purchase of the Glooko IR Adapter along with the MeterSync Cable).

New share functionality and screen: AirPrint your PDF logbook directly from your iPhone, export a CSV of all your data from the Share screen, Open up your lognook using other PDF readers on your iPhone, such as iBooks.

New settings screen.