Doctors from the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Integrated Health Information Systems (iHiS) have come up with the mobile app which helps diabetes patients to take the correct amount of insulin every day.

The app, called SGH Diabetes Pal, informs users how much insulin to inject, based on their daily blood sugar readings. So if their blood sugar reading is high, the app will advise the patient to inject more insulin. Safety features are built in so that the patient avoids injecting too much insulin.

Dr Bee Yong Mong, director of SGH's Diabetes Centre, said patients are told to adjust their insulin doses accordingly, but many lack the confidence to do so. Instead, they wait until the next time they see the doctor for further changes.

To investigate if the mobile app does help diabetics to control their condition better, the agencies are running a clinical trial - the first such trial involving mobile apps in the hospital setting. A total of 80 patients who are new to insulin therapy will be roped in. They will be asked to use the app for six months and have their results compared with a group that did not use the app.