RapidCalc Insulin Dose Calculator –patient feedback informs development

Background: People with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) using Multiple Daily Insulin (MDI) therapy face a number of challenges when striving to achieve glycaemic targets. One of the most significant barriers arises from the need to perform complex mathematical calculations to determine flexible bolus dose requirements for a variety of blood glucose and food intake scenarios, on multiple occasions each day.

RapidCalc was developed to facilitate the calculation of insulin doses in a user-friendly format and to support more accurate and safe insulin dose calculation. RapidCalc was first released on 6 Nov 2010 and has had numerous upgrades, based on user feedback.

Aims: To collate and interpret RapidCalc user feedback to identify whether the app meets the needs of users and to inform further upgrades.
Method: Patient reviews from all Apple App stores were analysed. Users rated the  App on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest and 1 the lowest. User comments were then collated alongside each rating to identify common themes of user feedback.
Results: Eighty reviews were received. The number of reviews and their ratings are shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: Distribution of user ratings

The common themes of user reviews are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Common themes of 80 RapidCalc user reviews.

Conclusion: RapidCalc users find the RapidCalc application a useful tool, specifically with respect to accuracy of calculations, personalized settings, ease of use and ability to easily maintain a diary. User feedback has shaped the 7 updates issued to date.