Using Tidepool for telemedicine

Current restrictions surrounding Covid-19 are forcing many clinics to adapt in order to maintain the same level of care for their patients. At Tidepool, our free diabetes data management software provides a resource that can help clinicians and people with diabetes successfully transition to telemedicine in order to manage their diabetes care.

With the restrictions surrounding Covid-19, telemedicine can be a valuable resource for both you, as a clinician, and your patients in managing their diabetes care. Tidepool's software can help you guide your patients with the same level of care as their in-person visits. Dr. Saleh Adi, Pediatric Endocrinologist and Tidepool's Chief Medical Advisor, has been using Tidepool during his telemedicine visits from his clinic in San Francisco even before restrictions began, “We’ve done a lot of telemedicine at UCSF — primarily because we were using Tidepool, and it allowed us to do telemedicine very easily.”

In a recent webinar in our Tidepool for telemedicine series, Dr. Adi uses case studies demonstrating how to use Tidepool for patient care. He highlights the following main advantages of using Tidepool for your telemedicine visits.

Watch the full webinar with Dr. Saleh Adi ">here.

Tidepool is device-agnostic

Interoperability between devices is a priority to you, your patients, and to the mission of Tidepool. The Tidepool platform is compatible with a wide range of devices, and this list is constantly growing. Tidepool allows your patients to upload data from Medtronic, Tandem, and Omnipod insulin pumps, Dexcom and FreeStyleLibre CGMs (continuous glucose monitors), and a wide variety of blood glucose meters, apps, and connected pens. This allows you as a clinician to view the data from all of your patient’s devices in one place, and determine what is working and what isn’t, further enabling you to make actionable healthcare decisions.

To find a comprehensive list of compatible devices please visit tidepool.org/devices.

Patients upload their own data to the Tidepool Platform

Once patients have established an account with Tidepool, they can easily upload their own data before they come to their visit — in person or via telemedicine. And with current restrictions, it is just as easy for you and your patient to review the data online as it is during an in-person visit. As Dr. Adi points out, “[Tidepool is] shifting the onus of uploading the data from the clinic to the patients because they can do it at home.” This shift in responsibility from the clinic to the patient not only frees up your clinical staff’s time uploading the data, but also allows you to review the data prior to the visit. This means the time during the visit can instead be focused more fully on outcomes to help facilitate better care. “It’s time well-spent teaching patients how to upload their data at home,” says Dr. Adi, “as they will continue to do so even when they return to normal in-person visits.”

Data can be viewed between visits

While your patients own their data and upload it themselves, once they have established an account with Tidepool and connected their devices, their CGM data is automatically uploaded. This means you as clinicians can review their data in between visits to monitor your patient’s blood glucose trends in real time. This gives you a more comprehensive view of your patients' care in an intuitive and convenient way.

In Dr. Adi’s view, “the way the data is presented, it shifts the focus to time-in-range instead of focusing on A1C. This is particularly helpful in the context of telemedicine...To me, [it] is a better measure of how things are going than the A1C.”

Tidepool software is available at no charge for both patients and clinicians

Every clinic, no matter how big or small, can use Tidepool to help patients engage with their data thanks to JDRF's No Clinic Left Behind grant. Tidepool is free for you as a clinician and all end users — your patients, their family, and their other care team members.

Tidepool can help your clinic and patients smoothly transition their diabetes care to telemedicine during this time of uncertainty. We are committed to building software that improves the lives of your patients, and we welcome all feedback.

“Every time a clinician writes in to support@tidepool.org, that feedback helps us prioritize the work and the conversations that we have to improve our software for the entire Tidepool Community.” — Christopher Snider, Community Manager.

Dr. Saleh Adi is a pediatric endocrinologist and diabetes specialist, and Chief Medical Advisor for Tidepool.