There are enough issues with the data from our diabetes devices to make the average PWD's head spin.

First off, there's the sheer volume of it. Consider that the average glucometer burns through 1500 readings a year -- which hikes up somewhere closer to 6000 if you have type 1 diabetes and don't have a continuous monitor you can rely on. Then there are the carb counts, food data bases, multiple basal rates, special basal rates, bolus wizards, special bolus calculations, and the smartphone calendar alarm to manage them all. Those of us with type 2 diabetes may not have all the insulin data to collect, but we have instead the blood pressure data, and along with the caloric impact of the foods we eat, we have to capture the fat distribution and the sodium levels. For all of us who exercise regularly, there are the heart-rate monitor data, the treadmill, elliptical, and cyclocomputer statistics, and the rep charts for weights.

Fortunately, many of our devices auto-log, and if we're willing to invest in the correct connector cables, these logs can be saved on our computers or on the Web. Each device has its own logging software, its own analytics, and its own reports. While some of these applications allow for the manual input of the data we collect from our other devices, manual input is the key. Data entry becomes tedious, and the applications don't analyze the "foreign" data, anyway.

Integrated analysis is key. While a twenty-four-hour fast may provide sufficient information for insulin basal rates or the half-life of a mealtime medication, we don't live our lives in a food vacuum. Nor do we live our lives in an exercise vacuum, a thermal vacuum, or any other sort of vacuum. In order to make sense of all the data we are collecting, they need to be analyzed in context. 

I hoped Microsoft Health Vault (MHV) might be the answer. From the moment I saw that my OneTouch glucometers were supported, I hoped the system would display the uploaded data from all my body-measurement devices simultaneously, so I could correlate their readings. Livestrong's MyPlate D has showing carbs and glucose on the same graph for years now; you can see at a glance the effect the donut-laden office meeting had on your blood glucose for the rest of the day. The OneTouch UltraSmart meter allows you to enter basic food information; unfortunately, having to scroll through every single number on the interface quickly gets tedious.

I made sure my OneTouch Desktop Management software and cable drivers were up to date; then I tried to connect one of my meters to MHV. After several unsuccessful tries to locate my device in Microsoft HealthVault Connection Center, I tried the "alternate method" of selecting my device and letting Microsoft do the rest. That resulted in an error message: MHV couldn't connect to my cable because the OneTouch desktop software was installed. After uninstalling that and installing the MHV drivers, I was able to upload the data from all three of my OneTouch meters and see the results both in MHV and in Lifescan's Web-based application, OneTouch Zoom.

While OneTouch Zoom provides both a graphical logbook and a glucose line chart, those are the only two reports it provides. (The desktop software provides 11 separate report types.) Also, doesn't allow for customized high/low levels --  which is annoying whether you're logging for a child for whom 160 mg/dl is a reasonable level during a growth spurt, or a Bernstein follower aiming for tight control. In short, it's OneTouch ExtraLite. On the other hand, it's sufficient for emergency medicine and to keep your doctor informed.

I now had two classes of device loaded in MHV's Connection Center, and both categories in the "Measurements" area of the "Health Information" screen showed a number of saved measurements. I could view either set of data separately, as either a log or a line graph, but I could not see both devices' data together. Color me "disappointed". The closest I could get was My Health Info (MHI), which is in beta testing over at MSN Health. MHI links to MHV and has a nice user interface, despite some limitations. Some of the more common types of information gathered in MHV can be displayed as widgets -- you choose which ones you need, and in what configuration. While I can see two graphs -- such as blood pressure and blood glucose -- side-by-side, I can't stack the graphs, overlay them, or overlay the readings with any of my other health metrics. 

Unhappy with those limitations, I tried to reinstall OneTouch's desktop software. The application refused to install until I removed the meter drivers for MHV. In other words, I can have robust data analysis or I can have connectivity... but not both. Annoying.

While right now I'd love to tell MHV to "go stuff it", it's too early for me to give up on the service. A number of add-on tools analyze the data accumulated via the Connection Center; maybe one will do what I need. I don't think it's too much to ask for the folk trying to collect all our data to also provide meaningful ways of analyzing them. And I think developers and businesses understand the value of integrated data analysis. It's just, the system isn't there yet.

I hope that someday soon, it will be.