Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Apr 17, 2009

Marie T-C 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / "Diabetes set off course" Balance letter

Just an idea....would it be possible to ask DAFNE education centres to promote course attendees to contact Diabetes UK with their views of DAFNE? Personally, I have nothing but praise for DAFNE. I am still undecided as to whether to persue using a pump (I fit the NICE criteria) but was told by my diabetes centre that if I do follow that path I would need to apply DAFNE to my day to day life anyway. I have only followed DAFNE since Oct '08 and have already improved my diabetes. I think there should be a regular feature in Balance about DAFNE and 'Insulin Pumps' - I really feel knowledge is power - it is then down to the individual if they decide to contact their diabetes care team for specific information.

Apr 17, 2009

Marie T-C 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public

Absolutley agree with everyone. I too used to go to toilets to inject, that is until I had my DAFNE training. After talking to everyone else in the group I gained the confidence (after 30 years of diabetes - from the age of 11) to test and inject in public. I am discreet - usually injecting in tummy and even my family don't realise I have injected. Whether the toilets are hygenic or not is irrelevant, why should we have to leave the dinner table/friends/topic of conversation to enable us to take medication - particularly if splitting quick acting injections after courses. Would anyone expect someone suffering from asthma to go to the toilets to use an inhaler?!

Apr 8, 2009

rams4eva 1 post

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read

I would be happy to test on my motorola rokr

Apr 7, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / BG Parameters

Please see below response from Prof. Stephanie Amiel from King's College Hopsital London.

The targets for diabetes control IN PREGNANCY are tighter than for non-pregnancy and include targets for post meal glucose values. There is much uncertainly about the importance of the transient rise in blood glucose that occurs after meals for risk of diabetes complications but there is good evidence that controlling them in pregnancy has benefit for the baby. Therefore, in pregnancy only, we focus on post-meal glucose also. At King's we use targets that were shown to benefit babies of mothers with gestational diabetes, which is more like type 2 and where the risk of hypoglycaemia is much less - 3.5-5.5 pre-meal and 4 â€“ 7 one hour after eating (very important NOT to correct if slightly higher than this post meal as hypo will occur â€“ use post prandial values only to make future adjustments to premeal doses over next few days) â€“ these targets can be very difficult for Type 1 where we sometimes relax to 90 min post meal testing!

But pre-conception there are no real data. We just know that having high averages (ie HbA1c) when booking for pregnancy (and the studies are old so booking tended to be at 12 â€“ 16 weeks!) increases risk of poor pregnancy outcome.

We ask our patients to focus on getting HbA1c less than 7% if possible before conception and I then suggest DAFNE targets for pre-meal and conventional 90 min targets of 4.5 â€“ 8. Sometimes this does mean abandoning some of the gains of DAFNE in that some people need to reduce CHO content of meals and even introduce between meal snacks to achieve this without hypo by next meal. To avoid weight gain, shifting calories from the meal to the snack, where this is necessary, is advised. It is fortunate that pregnancy only lasts 9 months!!

Apr 7, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / Liver Function Tests - Related to Insulin?

Please see reposnse form Prof. Stephanie Amiel, from King's College Hospital, London:

We do know that insulin resistance, common in Type 2 diabetes and not unknown in non-diabetes or Type 1, can be associated with abnormalities of liver function. Also note that the â€œnormal rangeâ€ is calculated statistically and 5-10% of people will always be outside it!

I donâ€™t think the type of insulin or the length of insulin treatment is likely to be relevant. The patient may have a degree of insulin resistance â€“ or another cause of the change.

The change is not huge. It would be best to see if it changes over time. It may just go away with repeat testing and would only be of concern I think if it steadily increases. In which case, I would advise assessment for other causes of abnormal liver function!

Apr 5, 2009

marke 655 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile Feature Requests

At the moment its planned to be a WAP/cut down version of the site. An app would not be suitable because to update it you would still need to connect to the site. So a better solution is to just provide a mobile version of the site. However I take on board your comments re carb counting and the handbook, should we get time to do it.

Apr 2, 2009

Lizzie 87 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile Feature Requests

The CP list would be helpful for me so I could find out how many carbs in stuff without dragging a book around. I know the books are small but still, it's another thing to carry and it has got a bit dogeared so I am wary of carrying it too much now.

I don't know if its asking too much but please could we have some key points from the handbook too? For example recently I was ill with ketones and would really have appreciated being able to check the sick day rules since I don't have internet access at home. But I know there may be some argument as to which are the important bits and it is too much to have the whole thing.

Will this be in the form of an application or will it be a mobile internet/wap site?

Apr 2, 2009

Lizzie 87 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read

I have a Sony Ericsson K850i.

Apr 2, 2009

marke 655 posts

Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE in peril at the Wirral

I have received word today from DAFNE central that the PCT for Arrowe Park, Wirral are withdrawing all funding for DAFNE and
forcing the HCP's/Trainers to cancel the courses they have already arranged. This PCT is obviosuly VERY short-sighted and lacking in common sense !

Do any registered users know of anyone who is actually in this PCT's area. We would like to get complaints sent to the PCT about
this policy, but they really need to come from people who are actually in the PCT's area. With new government policies on choice
and openness in the NHS, the PCT should listen to all complaints and act upon them.

Its important for both DAFNE and us, as people who have benefitted from it, to give as many people as possible to also benefit from it. To do this we need to pressure any PCT that wants to make short-term decisions based on presumably short term cash flows, to reconsider.

Please post here if you know of anyone in this PCT's area who could help.

Apr 2, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / Liver Function Tests - Related to Insulin?

Hi See below response from Prof Simon Heller from Sheffield below.

I am unaware of any evidence that slightly raised lever enzymes are due to Humalog therapy. It is absolutely untrue that AST is a bi-product of insulin. There are a number of important causes of raised liver enzymes including excess alcohol consumption, viral infections causing liver inflammation (hepatitis), some type of medication (but not insulin) and excess fatty deposits in the liver. If liver enzymes don't settle, further tests may be necessary and possible referral to a specialist

Apr 2, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / BG Parameters

Please see response below from Carolin Taylor, DSN and DAFNE Educator from Sheffield and Chair of the DAFNE Educator Group.

In Sheffield we recommend BG targets before & during pregnancy of:

Less than 6mmol/l before meals (but no lower than 4mmol/l)

Less than 8mmol/l 1hour after meals / at bedtime

This obviously does mean introducing BG tests after meals (not normally recommended for routine DAFNE); in practice we find that ladies frequently need higher QA:CP ratios in order to hit the target 1hr after meals and in many cases they also need to take their QA up to 1/2hr prior to eating to get the peak effect of the QA at the appropriate time. Consequently, BI may need to be reduced to prevent hypos between meals, or possibly low-GI snacks could be required.

I hope this helps.

Apr 2, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / Dieting

Hi

the national DAFNE programme does not produce diet sheets; additional dietary advice beyond the DAFNE course are dealt with on a local level. I would recommend that you speak with your local dietitian about your needs.

Apr 2, 2009

digth 16 posts

Topic: Questions ? / Type 2 & DAFNE

Hi

this is a question that we get asked alot via the dafne.uk.com website; and marke's response pretty much covers it, however below is the standard response from the DAFNE Drs and Educators on the DAFNE Executive Group that we use:

The evidence base for DAFNE relates entirely to Type 1 diabetes; we do not know of any evidence that supports the use of intensive insulin therapy in Type 2 diabetes.

Having said that, several of my colleagues have either knowingly or unknowingly included a few Type 2 / Type ? patients on their DAFNE courses. Those knowingly placed on courses have been insulin deficient / sensitive. Some of these patients did appear to do quite well on DAFNE although some reported weight gain, however these are only observational comments.

However my colleagues also reported that it is a very different situation when the patient is insulin resistant these patients have very different needs which disrupted the learning of the other group members with Type 1 diabetes during the DAFNE week. One of my colleagues commented that their service tends to offer 1 to 1 education for such patients where they obtain carb counting skills from a specialist Dietitian DAFNE Educator, with emphasis on portion size reduction, lifestyle choices and weight loss as well as improving glycaemic control.

My colleagues agree that whilst we do not have any evidence to support beneficial outcomes for Type 2 insulin sensitive/ deficient patients following a DAFNE course, individuals should discuss the appropriateness of participating in DAFNE training with their local team. Although it is not a situation where an absolute dictum can be applied but in general the approach of matching insulin to food works best if pure insulin deficiency is the underlying cause of the diabetes although generally the different disorders require different approaches to management.

Apr 1, 2009

Damo 7 posts

Topic: General Discussion / More forums ?

Hi Simon
Thanks for implementing that feedback.
I notice that you have also put an average for the last 7/14/30 days up there as well. Think thats a really good idea.
Im really finding this site useful, thanks again!!
D.

Mar 30, 2009

Keith Shaw 3 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Simon, i am well impressed. I hope everyone finds it as useful as i do. Can't see what else you have in store for the site.

Keith

Mar 30, 2009

Simon 574 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Update: The 7,14,30 day averages and counts are now shown to the right of the BG Diary View, and the total number of stored entries is shown under the date picker fields near the top of the view.

Your feedback as always is much appreciated.

Simon

Mar 30, 2009

Simon 574 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Hi Keith,

You raise some great points here:

7,14,30 day averages - Yes i agree that these would be valuable. I'll get started on this and update this post when it's done.
Counts - As above, will update you when this is done.
HbA1c - This will involve adding another module to the site; whilst possible it will take a little longer.
Export functions - These have been requested a few times - again they are a little more complicated than the first two, however they are on the radar and will appear eventually - when they do we'll announce via the forums.

Thanks,

Simon

Mar 29, 2009

Keith Shaw 3 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Hi Simon, iv'e taken a look at the time stamps and like what i see. I also like the new graphs you have added.

I don't know if the following would a good idea or not but i use an Accu-Chec Compact Plus monitor and it has the ability to display the last 7, 14 & 30 days average test readings along with the total number of tests done over the period (i don't know if other testers do the same or not, i just know my previous testers didn't). I was just woundering if something like this could be added and if it would be usefull to other members. I know it's in noway accurate but the 30 day average seems to give me a ball park figure as to what my HbA1c is running at (may not be the same for everyone). Oh sorry about this but speaking of the HbA1c readings do you have any plans to add the ability to record these on the existing diary (or creating it's own diary & graphs). I know they are not done as often as the daily readings but if everyone else is similar i seem to only remember the last few readings and i, for 1, plan to be using this site for some time to come (solong as my life span permits :-) ). Do you also plan for any kind of export function to be added to the diary, say to csv or xls file?

Sorry if i'm a pain for enquiring on all the above but i too work in IT and do quite a bit of testing on our software.

Regards,

Keith

Mar 29, 2009

Carl 5 posts

Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries

Like Louisa I too was running out of space in my physical DAFNE diary and was planning on first creating a PDF version so I could print some new sheets when I needed to and then at some later stage, being a web developer myself, creating an online DAFNE diary.

Luckily you chaps have saved me some work and have done a great job!

One feature which would be useful (and I think easy to implement) would be an option to download entered diary data as an Excel spreadsheet, CSV or XML file? This would prove useful for allowing users to create personal backups of their valuable test results as well as allowing them to use Excel's powerful graphing functions to produce any ad-hoc charts they might need?

Anyway, the current online diary gets a big thumbs up from me although to be fair, I've only just started using it.

Mar 29, 2009

Carl 5 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read

I have a Nokia E51 which has web access and a screen resolution of 240x320 and would be happy to trial any mobile version of the website and report my findings.

Mar 29, 2009

Simon 574 posts

Topic: General Discussion / More forums ?

Hi Damo,

We've now added trending charts to the online BG diary - these plot BG readings over time as well as your average BG reading at different times of the day. If there are other charts you'd like to see then let us know and we'll get started on them ASAP.

Thanks,

Simon

Mar 29, 2009

Simon 574 posts

Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries

Update to the online BG diary charts - we now have trending charts available which show your BG Readings over time, as well as your average readings at different times of the day. Find the links to these underneath the display of your BG diary online.

If anyone has feedback/suggestions of other charts/BG Functions then post here and we'll get started on them ASAP.

Thanks,

Simon

Mar 29, 2009

Simon 574 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Keith - Thanks for your feedback, there's now a time stamp next to each comment in the BG Diary view. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Simon

Mar 27, 2009

marke 655 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Rebecca,
Goggle analytics is aimed at marketing and advertising not really increasing ranking which works a different way. Also we are not trying to get top of google, the site is primarily for DAFNE graduates NOT general web users. A high ranking will let graduates find us but their course organisers should be telling them anyway (hopefully).

Keith,
No plans to add links to the evil empires I don't think ;-) My personal view is social network sites are just a marketing tool to part people with personal information, but then I work in IT and have to fight the spam generated by them everyday :-( Anyway this is a site for DAFNE Graduates, if people want to communicate with each other great but its down to them how to do it, we don't need to endorse or advertise these sites which are already popular enough. We do take on board comments for site improvements and will try time permitting to implement suggestions.

Mar 27, 2009

Keith Shaw 3 posts

Topic: Site Development / Site attendance

Hi,
Joined the site a couple of days ago, after attending the 1 year Dafne review in Sheffield, and think it's great. I do have 1 question. In the BG diary, is there no way to add the time against the comments so you can see which of that days entries they relate to. Apart from that site looks GOOD.

Oh sorry 1 other thing, are you intending to add any links to social network sites such as facebook, twitter or MSN to mention a few?

Simon, thanks for the web site. I can see it only getting better and better as more people sign up.

Regards

Keith

Apr 17, 2009 Marie T-C 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / "Diabetes set off course" Balance letter Just an idea....would it be possible to ask DAFNE education centres to promote course attendees to contact Diabetes UK with their views of DAFNE? Personally, I have nothing but praise for DAFNE. I am still undecided as to whether to persue using a pump (I fit the NICE criteria) but was told by my diabetes centre that if I do follow that path I would need to apply DAFNE to my day to day life anyway. I have only followed DAFNE since Oct '08 and have already improved my diabetes. I think there should be a regular feature in Balance about DAFNE and 'Insulin Pumps' - I really feel knowledge is power - it is then down to the individual if they decide to contact their diabetes care team for specific information.

Apr 17, 2009 Marie T-C 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public Absolutley agree with everyone. I too used to go to toilets to inject, that is until I had my DAFNE training. After talking to everyone else in the group I gained the confidence (after 30 years of diabetes - from the age of 11) to test and inject in public. I am discreet - usually injecting in tummy and even my family don't realise I have injected. Whether the toilets are hygenic or not is irrelevant, why should we have to leave the dinner table/friends/topic of conversation to enable us to take medication - particularly if splitting quick acting injections after courses. Would anyone expect someone suffering from asthma to go to the toilets to use an inhaler?!

Apr 8, 2009 rams4eva 1 post	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read I would be happy to test on my motorola rokr

Apr 7, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / BG Parameters Please see below response from Prof. Stephanie Amiel from King's College Hopsital London. The targets for diabetes control IN PREGNANCY are tighter than for non-pregnancy and include targets for post meal glucose values. There is much uncertainly about the importance of the transient rise in blood glucose that occurs after meals for risk of diabetes complications but there is good evidence that controlling them in pregnancy has benefit for the baby. Therefore, in pregnancy only, we focus on post-meal glucose also. At King's we use targets that were shown to benefit babies of mothers with gestational diabetes, which is more like type 2 and where the risk of hypoglycaemia is much less - 3.5-5.5 pre-meal and 4 â€“ 7 one hour after eating (very important NOT to correct if slightly higher than this post meal as hypo will occur â€“ use post prandial values only to make future adjustments to premeal doses over next few days) â€“ these targets can be very difficult for Type 1 where we sometimes relax to 90 min post meal testing! But pre-conception there are no real data. We just know that having high averages (ie HbA1c) when booking for pregnancy (and the studies are old so booking tended to be at 12 â€“ 16 weeks!) increases risk of poor pregnancy outcome. We ask our patients to focus on getting HbA1c less than 7% if possible before conception and I then suggest DAFNE targets for pre-meal and conventional 90 min targets of 4.5 â€“ 8. Sometimes this does mean abandoning some of the gains of DAFNE in that some people need to reduce CHO content of meals and even introduce between meal snacks to achieve this without hypo by next meal. To avoid weight gain, shifting calories from the meal to the snack, where this is necessary, is advised. It is fortunate that pregnancy only lasts 9 months!!

Apr 7, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / Liver Function Tests - Related to Insulin? Please see reposnse form Prof. Stephanie Amiel, from King's College Hospital, London: We do know that insulin resistance, common in Type 2 diabetes and not unknown in non-diabetes or Type 1, can be associated with abnormalities of liver function. Also note that the â€œnormal rangeâ€ is calculated statistically and 5-10% of people will always be outside it! I donâ€™t think the type of insulin or the length of insulin treatment is likely to be relevant. The patient may have a degree of insulin resistance â€“ or another cause of the change. The change is not huge. It would be best to see if it changes over time. It may just go away with repeat testing and would only be of concern I think if it steadily increases. In which case, I would advise assessment for other causes of abnormal liver function!

Apr 5, 2009 marke 655 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile Feature Requests At the moment its planned to be a WAP/cut down version of the site. An app would not be suitable because to update it you would still need to connect to the site. So a better solution is to just provide a mobile version of the site. However I take on board your comments re carb counting and the handbook, should we get time to do it.

Apr 2, 2009 Lizzie 87 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Mobile Feature Requests The CP list would be helpful for me so I could find out how many carbs in stuff without dragging a book around. I know the books are small but still, it's another thing to carry and it has got a bit dogeared so I am wary of carrying it too much now. I don't know if its asking too much but please could we have some key points from the handbook too? For example recently I was ill with ketones and would really have appreciated being able to check the sick day rules since I don't have internet access at home. But I know there may be some argument as to which are the important bits and it is too much to have the whole thing. Will this be in the form of an application or will it be a mobile internet/wap site?

Apr 2, 2009 Lizzie 87 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read I have a Sony Ericsson K850i.

Apr 2, 2009 marke 655 posts	Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE in peril at the Wirral I have received word today from DAFNE central that the PCT for Arrowe Park, Wirral are withdrawing all funding for DAFNE and forcing the HCP's/Trainers to cancel the courses they have already arranged. This PCT is obviosuly VERY short-sighted and lacking in common sense ! Do any registered users know of anyone who is actually in this PCT's area. We would like to get complaints sent to the PCT about this policy, but they really need to come from people who are actually in the PCT's area. With new government policies on choice and openness in the NHS, the PCT should listen to all complaints and act upon them. Its important for both DAFNE and us, as people who have benefitted from it, to give as many people as possible to also benefit from it. To do this we need to pressure any PCT that wants to make short-term decisions based on presumably short term cash flows, to reconsider. Please post here if you know of anyone in this PCT's area who could help.

Apr 2, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / Liver Function Tests - Related to Insulin? Hi See below response from Prof Simon Heller from Sheffield below. I am unaware of any evidence that slightly raised lever enzymes are due to Humalog therapy. It is absolutely untrue that AST is a bi-product of insulin. There are a number of important causes of raised liver enzymes including excess alcohol consumption, viral infections causing liver inflammation (hepatitis), some type of medication (but not insulin) and excess fatty deposits in the liver. If liver enzymes don't settle, further tests may be necessary and possible referral to a specialist

Apr 2, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / BG Parameters Please see response below from Carolin Taylor, DSN and DAFNE Educator from Sheffield and Chair of the DAFNE Educator Group. In Sheffield we recommend BG targets before & during pregnancy of: Less than 6mmol/l before meals (but no lower than 4mmol/l) Less than 8mmol/l 1hour after meals / at bedtime This obviously does mean introducing BG tests after meals (not normally recommended for routine DAFNE); in practice we find that ladies frequently need higher QA:CP ratios in order to hit the target 1hr after meals and in many cases they also need to take their QA up to 1/2hr prior to eating to get the peak effect of the QA at the appropriate time. Consequently, BI may need to be reduced to prevent hypos between meals, or possibly low-GI snacks could be required. I hope this helps.

Apr 2, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / Dieting Hi the national DAFNE programme does not produce diet sheets; additional dietary advice beyond the DAFNE course are dealt with on a local level. I would recommend that you speak with your local dietitian about your needs.

Apr 2, 2009 digth 16 posts	Topic: Questions ? / Type 2 & DAFNE Hi this is a question that we get asked alot via the dafne.uk.com website; and marke's response pretty much covers it, however below is the standard response from the DAFNE Drs and Educators on the DAFNE Executive Group that we use: The evidence base for DAFNE relates entirely to Type 1 diabetes; we do not know of any evidence that supports the use of intensive insulin therapy in Type 2 diabetes. Having said that, several of my colleagues have either knowingly or unknowingly included a few Type 2 / Type ? patients on their DAFNE courses. Those knowingly placed on courses have been insulin deficient / sensitive. Some of these patients did appear to do quite well on DAFNE although some reported weight gain, however these are only observational comments. However my colleagues also reported that it is a very different situation when the patient is insulin resistant these patients have very different needs which disrupted the learning of the other group members with Type 1 diabetes during the DAFNE week. One of my colleagues commented that their service tends to offer 1 to 1 education for such patients where they obtain carb counting skills from a specialist Dietitian DAFNE Educator, with emphasis on portion size reduction, lifestyle choices and weight loss as well as improving glycaemic control. My colleagues agree that whilst we do not have any evidence to support beneficial outcomes for Type 2 insulin sensitive/ deficient patients following a DAFNE course, individuals should discuss the appropriateness of participating in DAFNE training with their local team. Although it is not a situation where an absolute dictum can be applied but in general the approach of matching insulin to food works best if pure insulin deficiency is the underlying cause of the diabetes although generally the different disorders require different approaches to management.

Apr 1, 2009 Damo 7 posts	Topic: General Discussion / More forums ? Hi Simon Thanks for implementing that feedback. I notice that you have also put an average for the last 7/14/30 days up there as well. Think thats a really good idea. Im really finding this site useful, thanks again!! D.

Mar 30, 2009 Keith Shaw 3 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Simon, i am well impressed. I hope everyone finds it as useful as i do. Can't see what else you have in store for the site. Keith

Mar 30, 2009 Simon 574 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Update: The 7,14,30 day averages and counts are now shown to the right of the BG Diary View, and the total number of stored entries is shown under the date picker fields near the top of the view. Your feedback as always is much appreciated. Simon

Mar 30, 2009 Simon 574 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Hi Keith, You raise some great points here: 7,14,30 day averages - Yes i agree that these would be valuable. I'll get started on this and update this post when it's done. Counts - As above, will update you when this is done. HbA1c - This will involve adding another module to the site; whilst possible it will take a little longer. Export functions - These have been requested a few times - again they are a little more complicated than the first two, however they are on the radar and will appear eventually - when they do we'll announce via the forums. Thanks, Simon

Mar 29, 2009 Keith Shaw 3 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Hi Simon, iv'e taken a look at the time stamps and like what i see. I also like the new graphs you have added. I don't know if the following would a good idea or not but i use an Accu-Chec Compact Plus monitor and it has the ability to display the last 7, 14 & 30 days average test readings along with the total number of tests done over the period (i don't know if other testers do the same or not, i just know my previous testers didn't). I was just woundering if something like this could be added and if it would be usefull to other members. I know it's in noway accurate but the 30 day average seems to give me a ball park figure as to what my HbA1c is running at (may not be the same for everyone). Oh sorry about this but speaking of the HbA1c readings do you have any plans to add the ability to record these on the existing diary (or creating it's own diary & graphs). I know they are not done as often as the daily readings but if everyone else is similar i seem to only remember the last few readings and i, for 1, plan to be using this site for some time to come (solong as my life span permits :-) ). Do you also plan for any kind of export function to be added to the diary, say to csv or xls file? Sorry if i'm a pain for enquiring on all the above but i too work in IT and do quite a bit of testing on our software. Regards, Keith

Mar 29, 2009 Carl 5 posts	Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries Like Louisa I too was running out of space in my physical DAFNE diary and was planning on first creating a PDF version so I could print some new sheets when I needed to and then at some later stage, being a web developer myself, creating an online DAFNE diary. Luckily you chaps have saved me some work and have done a great job! One feature which would be useful (and I think easy to implement) would be an option to download entered diary data as an Excel spreadsheet, CSV or XML file? This would prove useful for allowing users to create personal backups of their valuable test results as well as allowing them to use Excel's powerful graphing functions to produce any ad-hoc charts they might need? Anyway, the current online diary gets a big thumbs up from me although to be fair, I've only just started using it.

Mar 29, 2009 Carl 5 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read I have a Nokia E51 which has web access and a screen resolution of 240x320 and would be happy to trial any mobile version of the website and report my findings.

Mar 29, 2009 Simon 574 posts	Topic: General Discussion / More forums ? Hi Damo, We've now added trending charts to the online BG diary - these plot BG readings over time as well as your average BG reading at different times of the day. If there are other charts you'd like to see then let us know and we'll get started on them ASAP. Thanks, Simon

Mar 29, 2009 Simon 574 posts	Topic: Site Development / Online BG Diaries Update to the online BG diary charts - we now have trending charts available which show your BG Readings over time, as well as your average readings at different times of the day. Find the links to these underneath the display of your BG diary online. If anyone has feedback/suggestions of other charts/BG Functions then post here and we'll get started on them ASAP. Thanks, Simon

Mar 29, 2009 Simon 574 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Keith - Thanks for your feedback, there's now a time stamp next to each comment in the BG Diary view. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks, Simon

Mar 27, 2009 marke 655 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Rebecca, Goggle analytics is aimed at marketing and advertising not really increasing ranking which works a different way. Also we are not trying to get top of google, the site is primarily for DAFNE graduates NOT general web users. A high ranking will let graduates find us but their course organisers should be telling them anyway (hopefully). Keith, No plans to add links to the evil empires I don't think ;-) My personal view is social network sites are just a marketing tool to part people with personal information, but then I work in IT and have to fight the spam generated by them everyday :-( Anyway this is a site for DAFNE Graduates, if people want to communicate with each other great but its down to them how to do it, we don't need to endorse or advertise these sites which are already popular enough. We do take on board comments for site improvements and will try time permitting to implement suggestions.

Mar 27, 2009 Keith Shaw 3 posts	Topic: Site Development / Site attendance Hi, Joined the site a couple of days ago, after attending the 1 year Dafne review in Sheffield, and think it's great. I do have 1 question. In the BG diary, is there no way to add the time against the comments so you can see which of that days entries they relate to. Apart from that site looks GOOD. Oh sorry 1 other thing, are you intending to add any links to social network sites such as facebook, twitter or MSN to mention a few? Simon, thanks for the web site. I can see it only getting better and better as more people sign up. Regards Keith