Patient Education Resources

The following websites and resources are recommended by endocrinologists and diabetes educators at Penn as reputable sources of information about endocrine disorders.

Information on these websites is not intended to replace your physician's advice. Please browse the Internet with caution, and talk to your health care provider about your own health concerns.

Resources for Diabetes

• American Diabetes Association
• American Association of Diabetes Educators
• American Dietetic Association
• American Heart Association
• CalorieKing
• Children with Diabetes Online Community
• Diabetes Chat
• Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association
• Diabetes Forecast Magazine
• Diabetes Health
• Diabetes Pilot
• Diabetes Self Management
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
• Learning About Diabetes
• National Diabetes Education Program
• National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Disease

Diabetes/Medical Identification

• American Medical ID: This company offers personalized medical ID jewelry.
• FREE Diabetes Medical Emergency Necklace: Send a self addressed stamped envelope to: Free Diabetes Alert Necklace, Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, P.O. Box 96046, Washington, DC 20090-6046. Include your name and home address.
• Medic Alert Foundation: This company offers a 24-hour emergency response center, an extensive line of jewelry and personal medical alarm system services.

Exercise and Nutrition

• American College of Sports Medicine
• Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association
• Diabetic Gourmet
• Diabetic Living
• Diets in Review
• FitDay
• Fitness 4 Diabetics
• Choose My Plate
• The Renfrew Center (eating disorders)
• USDA Food Composition Data
• Weight Watchers

Apps for Diabetes and Weight Management

Recent smartphone and notepad apps are now available to help diabetes patients manage prescriptions, eating, and exercise. Many of them also offer analysis and graphing tools to help you make sense of the data.

The following apps have been reviewed by diabetes nurse educators at the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center.

Apps for Diabetes

• Bant: Designed to easily capture blood glucose readings and supply trend data for up to 90 days.
• Blood Sugar Tracker: Allows user to easily log blood sugar levels, set target blood glucose ranges, and view history and simple graphs to quickly identify numbers that are out of range.
• Diabetes Companion: Includes complete nutrition facts for common foods, recipes, informative videos, Q&A for common diabetes related issues and blood glucose tracking tools.
• Glucose Buddy: Users can manually enter blood glucose numbers, carbohydrate intake, insulin dosage and activities.
• iRecordit Diabetes Sugar Glucose and Health Tracker: Lets users record blood sugar/glucose, blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, nutrition, exercise, medications, lab results, and general notes.
• WaveSense Diabetes Manager: Tracks blood glucose results, carb intake and insulin doses; features include a logbook, trend chart, email reports, color-coded results, video content and customizable target ranges for hypo-/hyperglycemia limits and mealtime schedules.

Apps for Weight Management

• Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitness Pal: Tracks a combination of fitness goals and nutrition analysis features.
• Calorie Counter: Diets & Activities: Features a classic food diary that tracks calories, water, fitness, and the time each food item is consumed; and an option to create your own diet and physical activity plan and an integrated body tracker.
• Calorie Tracker by Livestrong.com: Food and fitness diary designed to help users achieve diet and nutrition goals.
• Sparkpeople Food and Fitness Tracker: Fitness and food tracker for people looking to lose a half-pound to two pounds per week or to maintain weight.