[speedkills]

A large percentage of Dexcom developers have had their lives impacted by Diabetes in some way. This and plain old competition are the biggest drivers in their features and usability in my experience. You have to keep in mind like most businesses they have a long feature pipeline in development that is not public knowledge. If you release a feature and see it mirrored by someone else shortly after it's as likely that you both thought of it, and you just beat them to it than it is that they were inspired by you. Especially when one of you has a much shorter time to market thanks to no FDA oversight.

[zaroth]

I’m sure the Dexcom developers are good people. And just look at their stock price — things are going well for them since they released the G6, which, well, actually works most of the time!

Their software is still doing trivial things badly and they deserve to feel ashamed and embarrassed that Nightscout could relay an integer value over the Internet to a smartphone years sooner than they could.

I’m very thankful for Dexcom. They’ve done great things for T1D management. They could do much, much better. They are only scratching the surface of what a CGM system should do, never mind a closed-loop system of which they will be an integral part, and dare I say, should be in the drivers seat to a dumb-pump following their orders.

[akira2501]

> Especially when one of you has a much shorter time to market thanks to no FDA oversight.

They're fundamentally different markets, though. The device manufacturer is out to turn a profit on hardware, the open source programmer is out to improve their own individual experience.

Why should the second individual be subject to FDA oversight? I mean, I'm glad the FDA exists, but their function is to regulate the overall market -- not make it harder for me to make my _own_ healthcare decisions.

[crankylinuxuser]

> Why should the second individual be subject to FDA oversight? I mean, I'm glad the FDA exists, but their function is to regulate the overall market -- not make it harder for me to make my _own_ healthcare decisions.

Regulatory capture from the ADA..

Yes, the FDA does make it harder/impossible to treat yourself. You are an idiot as far as they are concerned. And the doctor is the holy grail of decisions. And even how they come to a decision is 'holy' knowledge.

I should be able to go down to a drug store and buy most drugs (ideally all, but another story) and administer them to myself. I should be able to treat myself. But all that's locked away behind one of the biggest paywalls we have in this country.