API and Timestamps
Hi all,
I'm currently looking into various food tracking apps as part of a software project I'm considering. Early days - just trying to establish if the thing is feasible. In a sentence it's a tool for gathering data from various devices and sources in such a way that might enable a Type 2 diabetic to quickly learn about their condition, their response to things like food and exercise and the progression of their disease over time.
In order for it to work it would need data about meal composition and snacks with timestamps for when the food is eaten. Without this data eating cannot be correlated accurately with blood glucose response. As I understand it, if I pay for the Gold subscription I can enable timestamps, but cannot access that data outside of the Cronometer system except through the CSV export function. Is that correct?
Having had a look for information about a Cronometer API it would seem that it doesn't exist, at least not one that is available directly to individual users. I did find services such as Vital which provide an API for a range of devices and apps including Cronometer (And MyFitnessPal and Nutracheck), though it is far too expensive for my purposes. If I did miraculously obtain the resources to develop my project using one of those 3rd party APIs, would it enable access to timestamps? Looking through the API documentation for a couple of these services it would seem that this is not currently the case.
I looked into services such as Google's Health Connect and Apple Health, but it seems that neither service supports timestamps exported from Cronometer for individual meals or snacks at this time. An app developed to work on both iPhones and Android phones with integration with Cronometer via these services would need working timestamp functionality on both. Will it be possible in the near future to get timestamps for each individual meal and snack via both of these services?
It would appear that Cronometer now integrates with Dexcom CGMs. That's great, though Cronometer doesn't do what I'm looking for. It is unlikely to ever do what I need it to do because Cronometer is not a diabetes app. I'll give one example of how it is less than ideal for my purposes. Each blood glucose meter on the market has a 'bias', a degree to which the readings from that meter are objectively inaccurate when many readings are averaged. I own two blood glucose meters. If I test my blood every morning for a month using both meters, testing the same drop of blood, one meter will give me a reading that is around 0.5 mmol/L higher than the other on average. That difference is large enough that, if I were to use Cronometer graphs and reports to track my blood glucose levels over time, it would appear that I suddenly became considerably less diabetic a few months ago when I switched from one meter to the other. If I use Cronometer to log my blood glucose readings I can record value, units, timestamp and group. I do not have the option to specify the meter I used, let alone adjust for bias.
I cannot use Cronometer in a useful way for even those rudimentary data analysis, and neither can anyone else who happens to switch from one meter model to another. Some people switch back and forth between two meters - an accurate one with expensive test strips and a less accurate one with cheap test strips, used for different purposes. What would that look like, if a person wanted to use data stored in Cronometer for the purposes of data analysis? This may be new information to you, but that is entirely understandable as Cronometer is not a diabetes app. Incidentally, did you know that Dexcom devices have a small 'bias' that varies not just from model to model, but from each individual sensor to the next? (due to inaccuracies in the auto-calibration function). A problem, if a person would like a tool to track the 'severity' and nature of their diabetes over very short (hours) to very long periods of time in an accurate a way as may be possible.
Please consider making an API available to paying customers which supports timestamps. This would enable someone like me (or, more likely someone who can hire an army of developers) to develop a tool that can do what I need. I have decided to pay for a Gold subscription so that I can enable timestamps, though purely so that I can gather food and biometric data and experiment with that data via the CSV export. This is not a viable solution for a diabetes app on a phone, and without timestamps nobody can create a very good app without creating their own food tracking app to go with it. One company has already done that by the way. They even provide their own blood glucose meter. It seems that at least one company out there making a diabetes app understands the meter bias problem. Others too, perhaps.
If you would like Cronometer to be the food tracking app of choice to integrate with all of the many diabetes apps that are starting to pop up like weeds it needs an accessible API with timestamps. I'd pay for that. Others would pay for that.
Alternatively, make your own app, though if you want to do that I could really do with a job. I have ideas 