Newton High School Student Creates Application to Help Those With Type 1 Diabetes

NEWTON, MA — Resident Aaron Prager describes living with Type 1 diabetes as having a full-time job he did not sign up for, nor can he quit. The 16-year-old high school junior has since taken it up himself to create something to make that daily challenge easier for him and his peers.

Prager is a driving force behind BoostT1D, a digital application designed to help users better understand glucose patterns, includes AI-assisted meal analysis for decision support, and offers a community support component. Prager said that the inspiration for creating the platform came during a moment of shared frustration.

“I was out to dinner with friends who also have Type 1 diabetes, and we were all staring at our plates trying to guess the carb counts. Someone joked that we needed a "carb scanner," and I couldn't stop thinking about it,” Prager told Patch. “That made me start implementing the first part of my app, that takes photos of your food, estimates carbs and then gives you how much carbs it is and how much insulin to give based on your own individual doses.”

Prager described the process of developing the app as a long one, and it included a lot of self-teaching of things such as programming and data analysis.

“I definitely see software development in my future,” Prager said. “I’m interested in the intersection of math, computer science, and medicine, and I hope to work on better algorithms for diabetes technology, like artificial pancreas systems.”

Prager expressed gratitude to his family and friends for assisting him in creating BoostT1D, which included them taking on the role of beta testers for the app. He also thanked Newton-based State Rep. Jake Auchincloss and the Newton community as a whole for the support he has received.

“Last year I was selected as MA delegate to Breakthrough T1D Children’s Congress, where I met with senators and representatives in Washington to advocate for diabetes research funding,” Prager told Patch. “That experience showed me how important better tech is for everyday life with T1D.”

Prager confirmed that the feedback of users from the application has been overwhelmingly positive, and that he is satisfied his creation is making a positive difference. In the aftermath of this development process, Prager sees a long-term future in software development for himself.

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