Catalonia is leading the way as a first step in technological prescription

The MySugr application, from Roche Diabetes Care, is the latest mobile application to successfully pass the app accreditation process of the TIC Salut Social Foundation. As we have done in the past, we wanted to talk to one of its promoters to tell us about his experience of the process. In this case, we interviewed the general manager, Mr Josep Maria Vallmajó.

• Do you think it’s important to obtain a quality certificate for the MySugr app? What benefits do you think this certification can provide?

For us it is a very important milestone, since today there are no official certification or approval mechanisms at the national or international level that validate the app globally. Bearing in mind that mySugr is an app with over 2M downloads and that users endorse it as one of the best diabetes management apps on the market globally. Having this certification gives mySugr recognition as an application that can be prescribed by healthcare professionals with complete confidence.

• Do you think that there is widespread interest in obtaining this type of certification?

More and more, especially because these types of guarantees will start to become mandatory requirements in public tenders. At the moment in Spain only a few autonomous communities are committed to implementing this type of mechanism, but the prescription of apps will be increasingly common, so the health system itself must ensure the quality and safety of any apps prescribed by healthcare professionals, in the same way as it does with any other prescription. In this regard, I think that Catalonia is one step ahead and is leading the way in certification, as a first step in technological prescription.

• Do you have any other certification for this application at regional or European level?

mySugr is certified as a Class 1 medical device in Europe. The mySugr calculator module, one of its most useful advanced functionalities, is approved as a Class IIb risk.

• What was your experience of the certification process? Do you think the process is demanding or by contrast easy to pass?

The certification process is demanding in the sense that many features are evaluated and done so exhaustively. However, we had a lot of support from TicSalut throughout the process, and the availability and flexibility of the team made our work a lot easier. However, it should be noted that mySugr is a global application used by users worldwide, so any changes or adaptations required have needed more time, effort and work internally to be able apply the necessary modifications.

• Could you tell me about a particular aspect of the experience or a highlight of the process?

The certification project was an inspiring challenge. Being a global application, and taking into account its constant evolution, mySugr is updated at least 4 times a year. It has been gratifying to see how this evolution has made it a more robust application and aligned with certification requirements. This is further confirmation that we are on the right track.

• Do you think it is important to ensure real-time data is synchronized between the patient and the professional and stored in the patient’s medical records. Do you think this would be a breakthrough for telemedicine? If so, how do you approach it with this app?

Absolutely. At Roche Diabetes Care we work to offer integrated Personalized Diabetes Management (iPDM), and this is only possible if the healthcare professional has all the information needed to monitor the patient on an ongoing basis. Diabetes is without doubt one of the pathologies that requires the most data to monitor it properly, and healthcare professionals need tools to help turn all this data into useful information and, finally, into knowledge that will help them in taking decisions.

La Roche Diabetes Care Platform is a management platform designed to facilitate the remote monitoring of patients with diabetes, with numerous tools to support the professional in their day-to-day work and keep professionals and patients connected. It is a “cloud” solution that allows professionals and patients to access data from anywhere and at any time, and is also designed to facilitate interoperability, allowing the integration of the most relevant data in the patient’s medical records and will soon improve accessibility by allowing the healthcare professional to access the platform’s tools using their own corporate credentials.

mySugr also plays a key role when we talk about telemedicine, as it is not only an application that empowers the patient to self-manage their pathology, motivating and helping them in their daily lives, but also enables the automatic flow of information from the patient to the professional. It allows the user to automatically collect information from compatible glucometers via a Bluetooth connection, and also to connect to the Roche Diabetes Care Platform so that the information collected on mySugr can be uploaded to the cloud platform automatically and be available to the healthcare professional at all times.

• From your device you have the option to customize and add different functionalities within the APP so that the patient can choose the data they want to be displayed (prioritize that which they have a special interest in or which the doctor has described as important). What other aspects would you highlight that represent value for the patient?

mySugr is an application that makes it very easy to control diabetes for its users. The application has been developed by people with diabetes and one of its main advantages is its intuitive design and ease of use, as evidenced by the average score of 4.6/5 in the App Store and Google Play.

Its functions include the ability to save daily blood glucose values easily and automatically from the glucometer. The user can add notes in the app on their mood or food, among other things, which give more context to the measurements. In this way, mySugr allows the user to record everything they need to for the correct monitoring and analysis of the last 7, 14, 30 and 90 days.

Another one of the more useful features of the app is the ability to set reminders on when to measure blood sugar. This feature sets an alarm so that the user does not forget any of their checks by sending a notification at important times such as before or after eating.

Finally, the application promotes the relationship between blood glucose and eating habits. The user can save photos of their meals along with the results to better control their diet and see the effects on their blood sugar levels. The application also allows them to indicate the ingredients or type of food, to then do smart searches and learn in their day to day.

• Are there any other aspects of the process or application that you would like to highlight?

Undoubtedly, the ease of sharing information between the patient and their healthcare professional. mySugr enables the flow of data automatically to the Roche Diabetes Care Platform, making patient data available to the healthcare professional at all times. In this way the healthcare professional can better monitor the situation to make the necessary adjustments or changes in the therapy.

It should be noted that there is another way to share data through mySugr. The data can also be shared with health professionals or caregivers in two simple steps through the reporting functionality that allows the user to generate a PDF with all the information contained in the application.