This is the fifth in a series of application reviews - VRM Labs app catwalk. Our source are applications that are seen, claim to be or are mentioned in connection with VRM which are then reviewed according to VRM-based criteria. Suggestions of applications that you wish us to look at are welcome. adriana dot lukas at gmail dot com. We aim to do one every week.
Sugarstats is one of those rare applications online that provide individual users with analytical functionality. This means that you will get more out of it than what you put in it, in terms of data alone, even before experiencing the social benefit of sharing it. I consider applications like this essential to VRM and by reviewing sugarstats I want to draw attention to analytical aspects of data management that are sorely missing from all our data whizzing around the web. The individual user is usually the last person to benefit from his or her own data, if they benefit at all.
Here is what some of the data input looks like:
screenshot of data entries
From their About us section:
SugarStats is a web-based blood sugar tracker and diabetes management system built by diabetics for diabetics.
With SugarStats you can track your blood sugar glucose levels along with the elements that effect those levels such as medication, food intake and physical activity. You can then easily share this information with your health care professional, family and friends [...]
It is the Why (We do what we do) section that cought my attention:
In its initial concept, SugarStats came out of a personal project to provide a centrally available, online and easy to use glucose tracking and diabetes management system. Online diabetes management is not a new concept, but we didn’t see satisfying solutions that really were welcoming to the end user—the diabetic using it everyday. We wanted to create something that was not only easy to use and effective, but something that people would WANT to use and that didn’t look like it was built for a medical professional to use.
This seems to be the best motivation for building a tool like this and in case of sugarstats, it proved to be the right one too.
The sugarstats platform is closed, meaning you input your data and in exchange you get the ability to track, manage and analyse them. Your data is exportable in an open format (CSV), and opens as a spreadsheet or it can be imported into any other application that accepts the format. This means that your data is reasonably open on the spectrum of exportability and structured enough for reuse in another application.
screenshot of export
The data export is in definable sections, daily readings, weekly stats or a monthly graph and variations thereof.
screenshot of data export
screenshot of data segment export
I couldn’t find anywhere on the site export for the entirety of my data, which could be an issue - after using sugarstats for a few years, exporting all of it month by month might be a bit tedious. I test-deleted one of the accounts I created and there was no option to export even at that stage. However, the bottom line is that if you want to take your data out of sugarstats, there is a way, even if it’s time consuming when you have accummulated a lot of data.
I haven’t seen any way of importing data which could be convenient if you are someone who has kept your diabetes stats in a spreadsheet, for example. You might be looking at manual input or just starting from scratch. A useful functionality on the input side is the ability to input sugar and meds entries via email by sending them to a unique email address.
screenshot of unique email address
There are no feeds of your data/stats. The only feeds I was able to find were from the Sugarstats blog and from the home page. To my surprise they were two different feeds.
Data ownership amounts to ability to export and delete it, both of which is possible as mentioned above.
As for privacy, there are several levels users can choose right at the sign-up:
screenshot of privacy setting at sign-up
More details on what those levels represent:
screenshot of privacy settings details
From the privacy policy:
If you have your account set to private, we will not disclose to third parties any identifying data, including your name, mailing address, e-mail address or phone number without your express permission. To ensure the privacy of your data, never share your username and password with anyone unless you want them to have access to your data.
Their privacy policy has a bit about data sharing with third parties and authentication / authorisation :
Affiliated sites - We offer some of our services in connection with other web sites. Personal information that you provide to those sites may be sent to SugarStats in order to deliver the service. We process such information in accordance with this Policy. The affiliated sites may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.
They also emphasise secure SSL encryption as part of their treatment of user data.
In terms of data crunching and data reduction sugarstats is one of the strongest applications on the web. There are the blood sugar statistics, of course:
screenshot of stats entry
screenshot of medical entry
Apart from the stats and med data entry, there is also tagging:
screenshot of tag management
The graphs let you visualize your statistics in a simple and easy to read manner. For a given time frame you’ll also be presented with trends calculated from those statistics for your glucose, medications, food intake and physical activity.
screenshot of graph
The graphs can be daily, weekly and monthly, providing useful display and visualisation of data, progress of the condition and its management.
There are also three diabetic logs:
These are more records than input for further analysis but they provide an important context to the daily management of stats. There is also a journal, which is looks like a private blog for more free style notes than all the other entries.
There is major value added to your data by the application , simply by enabling you to collect and collate data related to various aspects of diabetes. The analysis and contextual information or records add further dimension to the user’s understanding of the condition.
Sugarstats is first and foremost an online tool for individuals with diabetes to manage. The relationship with the platform is that of a provider of functionality and storage for data. Sharing is encouraged both within the service and beyond.
screenshot of sharing
As for accountability & human contact the Contact us section has two generic emails: info@sugarstats.com and support@sugarstats.com for press inquiries and for user support. Not very accessible, however, there is also a community around sugarstats across several social networks:
Also, the blog’s main contributor is Bob and presumably he can be reached through a comment on a blog post. There are also names and bios of the founders in the About us section.
Sugarstats deals with specific data types i.e. health related data, such as sugar levels and medication records, as well as carb/food intake and exercise tracking.
The business impact is providing a better tool than many of the available applications, namely manufacturers of medical devices for monitoring blood sugar levels etc. It is also an example of not only a patient-driven application but also one that originated from patients. As previously quoted from their blurb: … diabetes management system built by diabetics for diabetics.
In that sense, it does change the supply chain for such applications and services, as it is a clear example of the demand side supplying itself (link to MI) that the web so disruptively and wonderfully enables.
The payment model is pretty straightfoward - there are two plans, one free and premium - aka freemium. The plans are compared here.
screenshot of price plans
They also have a shop with medical devices relevant to diabetes and related conditions.
screenshot of the store
Sugarstats does seem like a very useful application for people with diabetes (and for whose who care for or about them), where the users drives the value by capturing their data and having a way of analysing them. It improves the users understanding of his condition and helps him manage it better. I only wish we had more applications like that available for other areas of our lives, online or otherwise.
