You’ll Need A Doctor’s Prescription To Download This App

You’ll Need A Doctor’s Prescription To Download This App

BlueStar is a smartphone app that helps diabetics track their glucose readings, analysing patients’ blood glucose readings and coaching them on medical and behavioural changes they can make to minimize the disease’s impact. But good luck finding a download link on BlueStar’s site — it’s the world’s first prescription-only smartphone app.

That may sound strange, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Since BlueStar gives patients recommendations on the dosing and timing of their diabetes meds, it had to be approved by the FDA, unlike activity tracking apps that don’t have to do with diagnosis or treatment. It’s not a stand-alone app either — the patient’s doctor designs a diabetes care strategy, and the app helps keep the patient on target. And since it’s prescription-only, a patient’s health insurance will likely pick up the cost.

BlueStar launched to small regions in the US last year, and will roll out across the States in 2014. Now that there’s such a thing as a prescription-strength smartphone app, I wonder if Candy Crush will be labelled a controlled substance. [BlueStar via IEEE Spectrum]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.