At the American Diabetes Association meeting next month, diabetes management software company Glooko and the Joslin Diabetes Center will launch HypoMap, a new patient-facing platform to help increase patients' awareness of hypoglycemic events.

Hypoglycemic events are low blood sugar events associated with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Warning signs like sweatiness, shakiness, and weakness are often missed or misinterpreted, according to a Glooko spokesperson, and if a patient doesn't act quickly they can lapse into severe hypoglycemia, which can manifest as confusion, disorientation, loss of consciousness, or, in severe cases, brain damage.

The platform will include an app for patients with diabetes that will prompt them, after a hypoglycemic event, to record symptoms, perceived causes, and self-treatments. The platform will track logged data over time and present dynamic reports that will be viewable by the patient's care team. 

By tracking symptoms and causes, the system is designed to help patients avoid hypoglycemic events in the future. It can help patients and providers identify cyclical patterns or red flags that can indicate an impending event.

The system leverages Glooko's existing Population Tracker platform, which Glooko and Joslin announced in February. The Population Health Tracker gives hospitals a way to manage all the data coming in and flag patients with hypo- or hyperglycemic events or trends.

“There’s been numerous reports, but the cost of hypoglycemia is just enormous," Glooko CEO Rick Altinger told MobiHealthNews at the time. "It’s on the order of $13 billion a year and your average hospitalization due to hypoglycemia costs over $45,000. So eliminating a few of those goes a long way toward demonstrating a return on investment.”

HypoMap also takes its glucose data from patients' glucometers, which connect to their mobile phones via Glooko's device-agnostic MeterSync cable.

Back in January, when Glooko and Joslin first partnered up, they announced plans for a "virtual Joslin" platform, designed to “use pattern recognition algorithms to predict when patients are at risk for severe hypoglycemia or other complications and trigger provider interventions before serious complications and costs arise.” HypoMap seems to be the first step toward Glooko's "virtual Joslin" vision.