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Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by yeatsy on Sunday November 17, 2024 @07:07PM (#42168492)
Hi HN,

I’m Joshua, a student, and I’m excited (and a little nervous) to share something deeply personal that I’ve been working on: Islet, my diabetes management app powered by GPT-4o-mini. It’s now on the App Store, but I want to be upfront—it’s still very much in its early stages, with a lot more to go.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes while rowing competitively, and that moment changed everything. It wasn’t just the practical challenges of managing insulin, carb counts, and blood sugars; it fundamentally shifted how I see myself and the world. It forced me to slow down, prioritise my health, and take control in ways I never had to before. My outlook on life became more focused on resilience, adaptability, and finding solutions to problems that truly matter.

This app started as a pet project over the summer, a way to see what I could create using ChatGPT and explore the potential of LLMs to help with real-world challenges. At first, it was just about making my own diabetes management easier—understanding patterns in blood sugars, planning meals, and adjusting routines. But as I worked on it, I realised it could do more.

Right now, Islet offers personalised meal suggestions, tracks activity, and provides basic insights based on the data you enter. It’s far from complete. Even so, the process of building Islet has already taught me so much about how powerful AI can be in creating personal, meaningful tools.

This project is deeply tied to how my diagnosis changed me. It’s about more than managing diabetes, it’s about showing how anyone, even a student experimenting over the summer, can use AI to potentially solve real, personal problems. I believe tools like LLMs have the power to democratise solutions for all, making life just a bit easier for all of us.

If you’re curious, you can check it out here: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/islet-diabetes/id6453168642. I’d love to hear your thoughts what works, what doesn’t, and what features you think would make it better. Your input could help shape the next steps for Islet.

Thanks for reading !

joshua

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by chasing on Sunday November 17, 2024 @08:00PM (#42168756)
I was founding engineer at a start-up tackling similar problems, albeit using 2014-2022 tech. Email me off-list and I’d be happy to talk through some experiences!
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by d416 on Sunday November 17, 2024 @08:00PM (#42168751)
For an app being in the early stages the feature list is solid. Good work! love these lovingly crafted apps
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by jcims on Sunday November 17, 2024 @08:22PM (#42168879)
This is amazing, my daughter has been on pump therapy for almost eight years now and just now starting to feel like she has any control at all.

I downloaded the app, just to check it out, and the one thing that just struck me right off the bat is the permissions. Read is fine, it’s the write permissions, particularly glucose level and insulin delivery. I don’t know the full app ecosystem, and if it would be possible for your app to interfere with the insulin delivery settings on her pump.

if you have a website or anything that discusses how the application operates and what the permissions are used for it definitely check it out.

Ultimately though this looks like a great tool!

(Also really digging the company name!)

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by didgeoridoo on Sunday November 17, 2024 @09:00PM (#42169071)
As a fellow indie iOS hacker working on a personal project, I’d love to know more about how you built it! Assuming SwiftUI? Any UI libraries or dependencies? Any learning resources you found particularly helpful?

Congrats on shipping, I’m hopefully a month or so away myself :)

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by leereeves on Sunday November 17, 2024 @09:06PM (#42169096)
Looks great. I'd love to try an Android version.
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by pimeys on Monday November 18, 2024 @12:29AM (#42169952)
There's been one for years already. Instead of sending your data to ChatGPT, it uses multiple scientific models to calculate your insulin resistance, basal dose and can give you an accurate amount of insulin to dose based on the number of carbs you input. What the Android app can do and iOS makes very hard is to control your pump and close the loop. It is illegal to distribute health apps in binary form if they control your pump, but very much legal in source code form. Try it out:

https://androidaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

This is a life-changing app. It lowered my A1c values from around 8% to 5.5%. What is so special with Android is how easy it is to side-load apps, so you can compile AndroidAPS by yourself and keep using it. In Apple ecosystem you need the developer subscription and you also need to reinstall the app every now and then. There is still the Loop app if any iOS users want to try, but this complication from Apple has just pushed me to Android ecosystem for the past decade already.

https://loopkit.github.io/loopdocs/

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by je42 on Monday November 18, 2024 @01:41AM (#42170300)
My son (13) and I are also using AAPS for roughly 3 years now. The app does not look styled, however after taking the initial hurdle to find our way around in the app, it is greatly appreciated. Integrates nicely with Xdrip ( anf others)
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by pimeys on Monday November 18, 2024 @02:31AM (#42170491)
It is a life-saver. Learn it once, and it is the most important tool in your diabetic toolbox.
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by tigerwash on Monday November 18, 2024 @08:11AM (#42172009)
There is also iAPS, the AAPS-version but for Apple Devices; also take a look at Trio.

https://iaps.readthedocs.io/en/main/

https://docs.diy-trio.org/

But I like using Loop/LoopKit due its simple interface.

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by kakoni on Monday November 18, 2024 @09:51AM (#42172788)
I didn't know about trio. Is there someone who has experience in both AndroidAPS and trio? My son would like to switch to Apple ecosystem but aaps keeps him in android.
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by andrewchilds on Sunday November 17, 2024 @09:23PM (#42169168)
Congrats on the launch, Joshua! Super impressive work. I built a management app for T1D kids+parents, so I know how much work goes into a project like this. Happy to chat and share what I learned from my own attempt at this if that might be helpful.
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by croes on Monday November 18, 2024 @12:26AM (#42169935)
Does the App need GPT to run or was it just used to develop the app?
Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by kamens on Monday November 18, 2024 @03:47AM (#42170791)
fellow t1d + engineer + competitive rower (20 years ago...sigh) here.

props on shipping an incredible personal project! if you ever want to geek out about diabetes tech, DM me on X @kamens

scott hanselman would probably also love to chat about your project

Re:Show HN: The App I Built to Help Manage My Diabetes, Powe... by yeatsy on Monday November 18, 2024 @06:56AM (#42171642)
Thanks so much ! Appreciate the kind words about Islet. It still has a long way to go !