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Glucofacts Deluxe Software

Review - Page 2

Accessibility

Aside from the aforementioned auto printing of logs and reports which can make the application easier for individuals with accessibility issues, Glucofacts® Deluxe does not appear to support Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines. Even those of us without accessibility limitations expect the more common features like using "ALT+" hot keys and tab navigation. In this software, tabbing from link to link on the main page is very difficult because sometimes there is no indication of which link has focus (highlighted). I expect better from companies that develop software for diabetics considering after 15 years of diabetes, approximately 2% of people be-come blind while about 10% develop severe visual handicap.(Jan Roodhooft M.D., 2002)

Intuitiveness

There weren’t any major things I found that concerned me about using this product. The main menu uses large graphic buttons (albeit some without text unless you hover over the graphic), and most functions are easy to figure out, even without reading the manual.

Exporting Data

There is no method to export data from the application other than printing reports.

Data Backup / Restoring

There is no internal method to backup the database.  In the help section under the last tab, Bayer provides and incredible amount of information about the software, operating environment and the directories used by the software for everything, including the database path to the main user database, bayer.db. If that file goes missing or is corrupted the application will not load. You are provided the opportunity to load an existing database or start a new one. If you had to move the database file to a new location, you can point the application to the new  location.  

Support

If you do wish to read some instructions, there is a very well designed help section which can cover most user issues. Bayer’s website provides plenty of informative information.

My Thoughts

For myself this application provides exactly what I am looking for in software to graph my glucose meters data.  If you want to record meal data, health records, doctors visit and so forth, this is not software for you to consider.  Being a JAVA application means it can run on virtually any machine. If you are a multi-OS computer user, then you really can’t go wrong.

My main issue with Glucofacts® Deluxe is the lack of ability to export the data to a spreadsheet.  You must use this software to view or print the data. I would hate to think that I could spend years building the database and then discovering someday that I can’t run the software due to some future OS or JAVA incompatibility. I’m not sure if, or why I would want that long term data but I would like to think I could access my data regardless of what changes may occur. A .CVS file will always be accessible.  

All things considered I think Bayer has created a good application that only needs improved accessibility support and data exporting to be a really good piece of software. However, I think it does what most diabetics want out of glucose meter software and it does it better than most.

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References: Bull. Soc. belge Ophtalmol:"Leading Causes of Blindness Worldwide"; Jan Roodhooft, M.D. 2002

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