I am Christel from Diabetes Strong and in this video, I'm going to show you
how you can share your Dexcom readings, so that's your blood sugar numbers, with others. Sharing Dexcom
data with others can be relevant if you were a Dexcom yourself and you want to share your
readings with others, so that they will be informed if you go high or low, or if you are a parent or
you're taking care of an elderly who's wearing a CGM and you want to be informed if their blood sugars
travel out of range. Again higher low, so that you can react. So let's start with the basics.
Are you viewing your Dexcom data on your receiver or on your phone? If you're only using the receiver
quite frankly you're missing out. If you have a Dexcom G6, you're missing out on the option of
doing customized alarms and alerts for different times a day, and if you're only using this receiver
you can't really share with others because it doesn't automatically upload the data.
So basically, if you want the option of sharing your Dexcom data with others you need to use your
phone as a receiver, and you need to have access to the internet. Once you start using your phone as a
receiver, if you turn on Share and use the Follow app, and I'll show you how to do that, up to 10
people can watch your blood sugars in real time and this works both for Dexcom G6 and G5.
First, let me show you how to set up the Share functionality. If you have a Dexcom G5
or G6 you can use the Follow application and you can share your data with up to 10
people. So let me show you how to do that and I'll do a screen share so you can see it all
Open up your Dexcom app. Click settings and then up here click share and then you click add follower
and here you then type in whatever name, I'm going to put in Youtube, and then you add in the
email. Okay, I'm not going to share that, sorry, and click next. Now you're going to decide what you're
going to share. So first one I suggest you choose this. This is sharing the graph. Let's click next.
Then you set the different levels that you want people to be notified on, like high or low so you
can see here you can choose the different ones and you can set the blood sugar level as well.
Let's move on, click next, here you can see an overview. Send invitation.
And the invitation is sent. And here you can basically see who is following you.
The Follow invitation has been sent and the person has now received this email. So scroll down and you can do
one of two things; click one or click two. One is if you do not have the Follow app installed yet
and two, which is I'm going to click, is simply if you already have it, and you just want to accept
the invitation. It opens up a browser, says you're invited, click accept and then it comes
up here. It's just an overview, say start following and there we are. I already have the blood sugars on my
phone. Okay, so I can also see the graph because I allow that to be shared. I can click up here in the
right-hand corner, and see the nighttime view. And that is it!
There are different ways to share your data, there are different ways of watching your data. But just remember that if you're
the one sharing your data with others you need to have your phone with you, because your phone
is the one that communicates your blood sugar readings to whoever you're sharing them with.
Next, I want to show you Clarity. So Clarity is brilliant for sharing your data with your
medical team or if you have a diabetes coach. It's not real-time data, but it's all historical data
everything you need to analyze your blood sugars.
You can use the Clarity app, or just go to the Clarity website and you simply log in and then
you can download all of your historic information. So 90 days back, and you can download it as a PDF,
and you can send that to your medical team or alternatively, you can download a code, a sharing
code that you can send to your medical team and they can download everything they need. Let me show
you how. I'll do a screen share again so that you can follow along. Open up the clarity app if you do
not have it already you have to download it from the app store. But let's open that. Here you can see
an overview, this is just a summary, you can choose different time ranges, but let's click on Report
so that we can export it. Here you then choose the type of reports that you want, again the time
frames, and you say generate Report. It takes a little while to download, I did a fast forward here.
Boom there we go, this is what the report looks like. Click up in the right-hand corner. You can
export it, you can email it, fax it, whatever you want. But just click done and let's go down here
in the bottom right-hand corner, click that and now you can authorize sharing with your medical team.
So you can choose to accept invitation or generate a code. So let's say you want to generate a code.
Click here, and then choose the time frame, 12, 6, 3 months. You say generate a code and this code you
can then just share directly with your medical team and they can download your report for you.
Another way to watch your data or share your data is by using a smartwatch. So that can
be either an apple watch or a Fitbit like the one I have here. You still need to carry
around your phone, if you're the one who wears the Dexcom. Unfortunately, it's not a way to
bypass having to carry on your phone. You can watch your readings on an apple watch
as long as it's connected to a compatible iPhone. For Fitbit, it's a little different.
There's not an official Dexcom app for Fitbit however, there are clock faces that you can use
and I actually did a whole tutorial on how to get your Dexcom readings on your
Fitbit, and I will leave a link to that video up here so you can check that out.
And finally, there are also other apps that you can use to share your data. So those apps will
either pull your Dexcom data through the Share functionality or through the iPhone's health app.
And just remember that none of these devices, none of these apps
are going to pull your data automatically. You always have to give them permission.
If you do want to share your data in real time, you do have to use the Share functionality.
Whereas if you're looking for retrospective data you can just as well use the health app, it does
have a two-hour time lag. I use the share functionality daily to get my blood sugar
readings on my Fitbit. I also use an app that's called Sugarmate, and for that one, I will also
pull in the data through the Share functionality. Other apps that use this are Nightscout,
Spike, and there's a lot of others.
Sharing Dexcom data can for many reduce the stress, and thereby
the burden of living with diabetes. So if you think this can help you, I highly recommend it.
For example, I know a mother of a type 1 toddler and what she does is she uses the share functionality
so that she can see his readings, his blood sugar readings, throughout the house on different devices.
Also, I know several people living with diabetes who live by themselves and just
having their blood sugar numbers shared with somebody else gives them peace of
mind. Because that means that if for example they go low, and they don't hear the alarm somebody else can react.
If you found this video helpful and you'd like to see more from me
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