FreeStyle Libre 3 – US

I am a Pharmacist on a journey to start a more healthy lifestyle. Part of this lifestyle change is to adopt a more ketogenic diet along with logging and figuring out what foods negatively impact both my glucose and ketone levels. I chose to go with the Libre3 sensor for several reasons including being able to hopefully help myself understand the details and usage of these sensors to better my success and in turn be able to help my patients at the pharmacy as well. So lots to unpack here! My disappointment from a non-diabetic standpoint is this… I am looking at this tool as if I was diabetic. For starters the app is garbage! I feel like I can not zoom in or dig down into when certain levels occurred. All I see is the current reading and a trend. That’s all great but it is like telling a patient to eat less carbs and then not giving them a range of what “less carbs” means. To understand glucose readings you need to be able to see each and every reading down to the minute and log events to help you evaluate it all. If you can not see the readings and go back to see a specific time frame in which levels began to increase or decrease down to the minute level what is the point? For now the best I can give this app is 2 stars… it’s half baked and very little thought has gone into the actual data diabetics and non-diabetics alike need to utilize to achieve the healthy outcomes using the system. Where is the integration with Apple’s Health app? Abbott - you have much work to do on this!

I want to begin with my critique of the app. The critical alarm needs to be customizable. It is an ear-piercing alarm that you cannot adjust the volume of. Please allow for different volumes and allow for vibration alerts too. I understand that it’s a liability if the alarm isn’t heard, but the fact that there’s no way to lower the volume makes me uncomfortable with using it at work/in class. I can’t have this beeping when I’m attending a lecture or taking an exam. This really needs to be changed in order for diabetics to make this part of their daily life. This is my only critique as if 14 days of use. It is an amazing tool that relieves stress immensely. After 20 years of pricking my finger, it’s incredible to not constantly have to use traditional meter testing. While I still do use my meter everyday, the frequency with which I test is down by about 60%. Before Libre 3, I tested 12X a day. Now it’s around 5X. Also, the comfort of having truly accurate sensor readings upon simply opening my app is life changing. Thank you for giving diabetics some sense of normalcy and a break from the relentless guessing game of blood sugars. Even with proper management, some things just can’t be controlled. The Libre 3 has eased some anxieties and given me comfort I never thought I would have. Just please fix the alarm system. I want to enjoy this 24/7, not just when I am comfortable with a loud alarm going off in the privacy of my own home.

I wish this app would share data with Apple health. It is installed on an iPhone why not allow that option? Most health apps share data, I wish this did too. The app should have more symptoms available to log. And the food option should have more than just carbs, plus it should have a spot to write what food it is, not just food and how many grams of carbs. As if anyone knows how many carbs they’re eating. I wish there was a way to silence the crucial alerts. The sound doesn’t always play. If I am wearing my AirPods it should play in earbud and usually does. If I am I wearing my Apple Watch an it is unlocked it should alert there, which is quieter and buzzes for my attention. I wish it would not play so loudly on my phone when it does. And I wish it especially would not play sound at all when I am looking at my phone screen. The phone is smart enough to know that I am making eye contact with it it should not play. The sound has woken up my almost 4 year old 3 times and my room is across the living room from hers. The app is visually boring. It plainly enough shows the important data and that’s that. It would be fun if I could change the background color. I wish I could scroll back through my data on the home section. It would be easier to see and do than have to click on the “daily graph”. If I didn’t have to have this app for the sensor I wouldn’t choose this app. It works good enough, but not great. And I really wish is would share with Apple health.