Your questions answered… to the best of my abilities…
A bunch of you have been wondering if I’m a Mac or PC person. The answer is PC, by force. That is, I started out on the Mac many moons ago when I was 
working in magazine publishing in Germany; I loved the interface then as now. But soon I was back in the States, working in enterprise high-tech, which was all about the PCs, of course. I’ve been hitched to them ever since. Now, ironically, my husband has a MacBook for his work, and doesn’t even like it very much. Whatever. I think we’re going to all be using iPads soon anyway.
But to get to the real point of today’s post: I’ve gotten many, many queries about where to find good diabetes logging software for the Mac. So I looked into it. And the first place I looked was my inbox (I get loads of email pitches!) And guess what? I found this:
* Diabasics, for Mac OsX (universal binary) and Windows (XP or higher):
“Diabasics logs blood glucose levels, carbs and fat eaten and, if you are insulin dependent, the amount of insulin you injected. It remembers which finger you have pricked the last time you monitored your blood glucose. This way, you can avoid pricking the same finger over and over again and keep your hands sensible.” (that’s a quote – he, he – it’s made in Germany)
The program also has a large food database, and can calculate suggested insulin doses for those on injections. A free evaluation version is available on the company’s website, and the purchase price is $29.95, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
* Also from Germany a simple logging program called GlucoTrans, which connects users of the OneTouch Ultra meter with the Mac OS. It is free to download.
Stateside (although country of origin is meaningless in tech), you can also explore these:
* HealthEngage Diabetes, which looks very appealing and supports direct data upload to the Mac from a whole bunch of glucose meter models (cable necessary). You can enter glucose readings, medication, insulin, exercise, meals, test results, and personal notes. You can also plan and record meals using the 6,700 foods from the USDA Nutrient Database, or directly input carb counts for your own favorites.
Mobile companion programs are available for Palm and PocketPC. You can 
also export data directly to your iPod. A free trial download is available, and prices are $59.99 for the stand-alone desktop version or $10 more with the mobile companion software.
* Health Tracker, another simple program for the Mac that you can use to log blood glucose levels. It comes from Black Cat Systems in Westminster, Maryland, which offers a variety of health logging programs for the Mac, including Diet Sleuth, a nutritional database and personal health logbook.
There’s a 15-day free trial download, and the purchase price is $19.99.
* InsulinDiaryX brags that it offers “diabetes management, Mac OS style.”
It’s a new offering from StupidFish Programming that is currently in round-3 beta testing (requires Mac OS X 10.2 or higher). It looks pretty powerful and cool. If I were a Mac-ey, I would sign up. (Also ’cause I like the name “stupidfish”.)
* 1-2Tracker from ToThePoint Software, which lets Mac users track and graph BG results as well as their weight on a daily basis. It offers food, medication and exercise logs, and the ability to archive data. A free trial is available, and the purchase price is $15.
* Animas’ ezManager Max software, compatible with the Mac.
It works with a full range of Animas insulin pumps, including the OneTouch Ping, and LifeScan blood glucose meters. You can download pump and blood glucose meter data into reports and logs that can be viewed on screen, printed or emailed. (To download data from various glucose meter models, you have to obtain the necessary cable from the meter manufacturer.) ezManager is available with the purchase of new pumps for $49.00.
I’m sure this is not a comprehensive list. But it looks like there are some good options out there for PWDs who use Macs. ~Whew~ that is good to know. I mean in the sense that we patient-consumers should have plenty of choices. We don’t want to be locked into any particular format any more than “regular” consumers do, right?
Thanks for this nice long list. I will definitely take a look at the websites.
I currently log BG’s with pen and paper and then add them into an Excel spreadsheet.
That’s all fine and dandy that there is some logging software, but I want to use my meter and pump to download my data DIRECTLY to my Mac.
Plug and play. Not doing the work two times like I do now.
SERIOUSLY pump and meter companies: I am sick and tired of you being so old school and anti-Mac. Get with the program (literally).
(Not a rant against you Amy. I appreciate the time and effort to compile this list.)
Hi Amy,
Medtronic told me in January that their version of the Carelink site that was compliant with Mac would be released ‘any day.’ That was five months ago and still no Mac update from Medtronic.
When my daughter goes away to school next fall, I REALLY want her to be able to upload her numbers for me to view remotely, so I hope they get it done soon.
Got any pull there?
While we’re wishing–
DEXCOM, love your downloadable software, hate having to borrow my friend’s PC to read it. Please, please, make it Mac-compatible!
Thanks for this list, Amy!
Thanks so much for detailing all of these Amy – appreciate it! I still want to directly link my daughter’s OmniPod PDM to my beautiful, competent Mac, without any other programs. I REALLY don’t want to buy a computer just for Windows. I’ve already lodged a request with Insulet, here’s hoping they hear the tons of us out here who need Mac-compatible PDMs.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
One app I use a lot that will work on Iphone/Itouch is “Go Meals”. Great for carb counting. It’s made by Calorie King and Sanvo Aventis, and has a lot of restraurant in it also as well as grocery store food. I can access the Carelink website from my mac to view info in Develop mode but won’t upload data.
for those who haven’t tried it, I would again put it out there that VM Ware fusion (on sale for < $50 at macmall this week)+ a cheap copy of windows XP from ebay will run all the D-software you need, right in your mac, w/o needing reboot. Much cheaper than a standalone windows computer, and integrated into the computer you already use, so you can export all the data/graphs any way you like. Sure, native support is the dream, but in the meantime, this is a very good solution. And, in the larger scheme of d-management costs, not too expensive.
[...] of DiabetesMine: Pretty BGs: Glucose Logging Software for the Mac (I still want my pump to download directly to a Mac, but this is a [...]
Y’know, as a newly-diagnosed Type 2 sufferer, I was so excited to find a freeware program for my Mac, Diabetes Logbook X , but then when I clicked on “User Settings”, nothing happened. I sent them an email, but they never replied.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
You forgot GGC (GNU Gluco Control). Its written in java so it works anywhere… It support quite a few of meter device…
http://ggc.sourceforge.net
Andy
I was told by a Medtronics rep the Mac version would be released this month (December 2010) The thing you have to remember is the FDA has to approve the software…
This is a pain. I have a Wave Sense Presto which has resonably priced strips, due to limited insurance coverage I can not afford expensive ones. The Wavesense software will not install on my PC, can’t figure out why, can’t seem to get any help. Would really like to use my Mac to manage this anyways, but no ones software seems to support Wave Sense, all of my meters have a mini-usb connector, how hard could it be to put some kind of chip in them so that they are Plug and Play, so that you plug it in and any computer can recognize and at least download the basics, so I at least do not have to type the info in to my Excel sheet on my Mac?
Also about the Medtronics, you can not just download this software, you have to leave contact info so a SALESMAN can call you. Why not put a reasonable price on it and let users buy it without the hassle.
I tried for my mac HealthEngage – do not recommend, does not really work on mac. As soon as you try to start the glucose and other measurements input, all the tables appear garbled and in general i did not understand how to input information on glucose even if I would be able to see more properly those tables (((