 Regardles of how hard we try, our integrated Help subsystem for the Personal Diabetes Combo product can't cover everything; if it did it'd be so big no one would bother looking at it. We occasionally get questions, and the following are those and the answers. | If you have any questions on our Personal Diabetes Combo product, then we'll get you the answers. If your question is of interest to current or potential customers, then we'll add it and the answer to this page. |
How Can My Doctor Get The Readings? You can share the information with your doctor several ways. The simplest is to print a report (usually the Tabluar one) and either fax it, or leave it during an office visit. You can also email the readings in either clear text, or as a triple-encrypted secured file to your doctor, who can read this and incorporate into the Professional version of the program. |
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Why are the forms on my computer different from those shown on the web site? If your PC uses Windows XP, then the Theme selection out-of-the box (in the Screen Properties' Theme tab) will be set to WindowsXP, and they will be different from the "standard" Windows desktop color settings (which in XP are called the WindowsClassic Theme). However, all the screens, forms, etc. will be fully functional. These settings can be changed using the Screen Properties' Appearance tab, but only with caution; these settings are applied to all programs, and it is possible to make buttons, etc., "disappear". |
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The program doesn't allow me to enter my weight. The same applies to calories, exercise periods, and other numeric items that would be nice if they could be tracked. You can, however, enter these other items as comments when entering any readings. They won't appear in the graphs, but will be included in the tabluar report and flyover comments. |
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How many prescriptions can Diabetes Combo monitor? The program tracks up to four prescriptions, and each can be linked to one of two pharmacies for re-filling them on the Internet. Each tracked prescription's status indicator has a different color, and placing the mouse cursor over them will display the number of daily doses remaining. If the remaining doses is less than seven, then the color changes to Fuchsia, while the color changes to Red if the remaining doses is less than three, and the flyover hint will indicate that it's time to re-fill the prescription. If a prescription's color is Fuchsia or Red, and it is linked to a pharmacy that has a web re-order page, then double-clicking the prescription's status indicator will open that web page and a small screen will appear in the upper right-hand corner with successive prompts to copy any logon ID, logon password and prescription number into the web re-order form. |
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How do you enter past readings? The right-most bargraph is always "today" (or the PC's current date), with previous days' readings (if any) descending to the left of "today". When the program is first installed, there will be one weeks' set of bargraphs, starting at "today" at the right, with descending prior days' readings to the left. To enter a reading, double-click on the bargraph for the day that you want (which are displayed when the mouse does a flyover of the bargraph), and the (EnterReadings) form will be displayed. A day that has no readings will be marked as an open (or white background) bargraph. When the program is started on a "new" day, the (EnterReadings) will be displayed automatically, with any entered readings displayed in the right-most bargraph. |
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How can I change readings that I've already entered? You can change the reading entries and comment for a day's selected WhenTaken period for the current day ("today"), but not for prior days. Maintaining this data lock insures that health professionals (doctors, nurses, etc.) that use the readings can have confidence in the product's ability to provide accurate information. |
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Is Diabetes Combo registered with the FDA? The short answer is "No", because not being a diagnostic or testing device it doesn't need FDA certification, instead being a data collector, presentation and management system. It does adhere to the Federal HIPAA compliance requirements, and in fact exceeds these for information security. This is true for both the desktop and Palm Companion versions. To date, we haven't been able to interest any State or Federal office that has cognizance to certify, or otherwise review, the product, but we keep looking. |
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The [ReviewPeriod] selector doesn't always show the latest reading entry. The ReviewPeriod selector breaks down the reading history into weeks and months increments, subject to an upper limit (of four months) on the number of days' display that can be presented. Within this limit, the ReviewPeriod selected might be modified to include daily readings that are slightly larger to accommodate an entry that is between two period increments. For example, when the program is first installed, the maximum number of days displayed is seven; when the eighth (through the 13th) day readings are entered, a one-week review period selection will result in the eighth (through the 13th) days' readings being displayed in the bargraph area. These will also be included in the various reports. |
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What are the entry value limits? The program does a number of validation checks before the values are accepted.
Blood glucose values between 40mg/dL and 240mg/dL are accepted unconditionally. If the blood glucose entry is greater than 550mg/dL, or less than 40mg/dL, then a warning message appears to check the value and re-enter it. These usually are an ordinary entry error, or sometimes a meter malfunction (e.g., low batteries). If the blood glucose entry is between 241mg/dL and 550mg/dL (e.g., a "spike"), then a confirmation message will appear to either accept and use the entry, or to change it.
Blood pressure readings are validated for both absolute and average values. An error message will appear to check and re-enter an entry if any of these absolute values are met: - The Systolic is less than the Diastolic
- The Systolic is greater than 225 or less than 80
- The Diastolic is greater than 180 or less than 40
- The Pulse Rate is greater than 150
If there are more than three weeks' readings, then a confirmation message will appear if any of the blood pressure entries are greater or less than 20% of the running average for the previous three weeks. In these cases, the entries can be accepted and used, or checked and re-entered. |
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Anti-Virus Program Considerations We strongly recommend you disengage any anti-virus program that you may be using during the installation and registration of all FutureWare products. There are known problems with anti-virus programs blocking database access and other file-based processing. If you continue to have problems, then we suggest that you disable the virus scans on the FutureWare product's installation folder. Once installed, all FutureWare products can detect when that have been tampered with. |
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