The current status of bolus calculator decision-support software.

The purpose of self-monitoring of blood glucose is to take action based on the results of the tests. The three actions that must be taken by insulin-using diabetes patients in response to blood glucose self-testing are, first, to record the blood glucose level, second, to calculate an appropriate dose of insulin, and, third, to administer the dose of insulin. A low-technology solution exists for each of these three actions. In addition, a commonly used high-technology solution exists for the first and third of these three actions (recording the blood glucose level and administering the insulin dose), but no high-technology product is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for calculating an insulin dose (Figure 1). The currently unavailable high-technology approach to glucose-directed insulin dosing is approved software for calculating a bolus dose of insulin.