About

Why We Built FlightGlucose

Type 1 Diabetes is one of the most demanding chronic conditions in existence. People with T1D make over 180 glucose-related decisions every single day — before meals, before exercise, before sleep, when sick, when stressed. A wrong decision can mean a hospital admission. A series of wrong decisions can cause lasting organ damage.

And yet most diabetes education still happens through pamphlets, brief clinic appointments, and text-heavy handouts that patients read once and forget. We believed there had to be a better way to teach the intuition that experienced T1D patients develop over years of living with the condition.

FlightGlucose is our answer. A simulation game where you are the pilot, glucose is your altitude, and the consequences of every decision are immediate, visible, and reversible.

Our Mission

Our mission is simple: make excellent diabetes education accessible to every person with T1D and T2D on Earth — children and adults, regardless of language, location, or income. Five Easy to Medium scenarios are permanently free. No account, no paywall, no timer. We mean it.

We are based in USA. We built FlightGlucose with Arabic as a first-class language — not an afterthought. Full right-to-left layout, native Arabic text rendering, culturally appropriate patient names. Diabetes does not only happen in English-speaking countries.

Clinical Accuracy

Every number in FlightGlucose is sourced. Glucose targets, insulin onset/peak/duration curves, carbohydrate absorption rates, the effects of exercise, illness, alcohol, and stress — all of these follow the published physiology and the Latest ADA/EASD/ISPAD Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes.

The insulin pharmacokinetics model uses accepted population parameters for rapid-acting analogues (lispro, aspart) and long-acting basal insulin (glargine U-100). The glucose dynamics follow a simplified but physiologically plausible compartmental model that captures the key clinical behaviors: basal drift, meal spikes, insulin action curves, exercise sensitization, and counterregulatory responses.

FlightGlucose is an educational simulation, not a medical device. It does not provide personalized clinical advice. Always follow the guidance of your diabetes care team.

The Scenarios

We chose 13 scenarios that together cover the most important clinical situations T1D patients face:

• The fundamentals — basal drift, meal bolusing, carb counting
• Emergencies — hypoglycemia crisis, DKA, nocturnal hypo
• Complex physiology — the pizza effect, exercise timing, alcohol-induced delayed hypo
• Life stages — pregnancy targets (28 weeks), honeymoon phase
• Technology dependence — pump failure and manual backup
• Psychological factors — stress hyperglycemia and cortisol response
• Type 2 management — lifestyle and exercise as primary tools

Open Source and Community

FlightGlucose is built by a small team. We welcome feedback, bug reports, clinical corrections, and translation contributions. If you are a diabetes educator, endocrinologist, or nurse practitioner who wants to contribute to the clinical content, please reach out.

Support the Project

The free tier is funded by Contributors and Educator subscriptions (launching 2026), and by voluntary donations from users who find the game useful. If FlightGlucose has helped you or someone you care about, consider supporting it:

Contact

For general inquiries: hello@diabetessimulations.com
For educators and institutions: edu@diabetessimulations.com
For clinical feedback and corrections: clinical@diabetessimulations.com