Your everyday experiences can help shape the future of diabetes
Why your participation matters
Your data drives change
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The RIPPLE Study
A Tidepool Big Data Donation Project study that brings together diabetes device data, wearable signals, and health survey responses to explore how everyday aspects of life, like sleep, activity, stress, and hormonal changes, can create ripple effects across the diabetes spectrum.
Your participation helps build one of the most comprehensive real-world pictures of life with diabetes across the full spectrum of experience, informing better tools for the whole community.
Who can join the RIPPLE Study?
You may be eligible to participate if you:
The survey takes just a few minutes. Once you've completed it, we'll review your eligibility and reach out when the next phase of enrollment opens.
What's included?
*Participants will need to pay a one-time $20 fee to cover shipping for Oura Ring Sizing Kit and a refurbished Oura Ring Gen3.
Please note: As part of this study, you can decide whether to share your reproductive health data with Tidepool. We know this information is sensitive. Sharing reproductive health data is optional, and you can choose what data you share from your Oura Ring at any time. If you have questions about what's included, see our support article before participating.
What does it look like to participate in the RIPPLE Study?
Sign into Tidepool
If you don’t already have one, create a Tidepool account
Sign informed consent forms, which detail what data will be captured, how it will be used, and your benefits as a participant
Connect your compatible devices to your Tidepool account
Complete a detailed health survey
Order your Oura Ring Sizing Kit and Oura Ring
Link your Oura account to Tidepool
Plan to wear your new Oura Ring and upload your diabetes device data regularly to Tidepool
Have more questions? We’ve got answers.
Participation & Eligibility
We’re looking for people who:
- Live with any form of diabetes
- Live in the United States
- Are 18 years or older
- Are willing to share their diabetes device and Oura Ring data
No, you can have any form of diabetes. This includes:
- Type 1 diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes
- Monogenic diabetes (such as Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young)
- Gestational diabetes
- Secondary forms of diabetes (for example, diabetes related to pancreatic conditions, cystic fibrosis, medications, or medical treatments)
- Pre-diabetes
For this study, you must be using Tidepool-supported device(s). You can review the full list of devices supported by Tidepool to see if yours is compatible. We are continuously adding new devices. If you don't see yours listed yet, please complete the eligibility survey, and we will reach out to you if your device becomes compatible.
The RIPPLE Study is a sub-study of the TBDDP, so you'll need to be opted in — but you can do that any time, before joining RIPPLE if you'd like.
There are a few steps to get you all set up for the study:
- Take a brief eligibility screener
- If you don’t already have one, create a Tidepool account
- Sign informed consent forms, which detail what data will be captured, how it will be used, and your benefits as a participant
- Connect your compatible devices to your Tidepool account
- Complete a detailed health survey
- Order your Oura Ring Sizing Kit and Oura Ring
- Link your Oura account to Tidepool
- Plan to wear your new Oura Ring and upload your diabetes device data regularly to Tidepool
After setup, participation primarily involves going about your daily life while wearing your devices and sharing data. This is an observational study and does not involve any treatments or changes to your care.
You can participate in this study for as long as you are willing and interested! This is a long-term research project, so there is no set end date. We expect the study to continue for years to come.
The Oura Membership offer is for a year. At the end of the year, you can choose to continue your Membership for a fee or cancel it. If you choose to continue wearing your Oura Ring, you can share your data with Tidepool for as long as you wish.
Whether you continue the paid membership or not, you can share your data with Tidepool for as long as you wish!
Logistics & Study Details
Your Oura Ring comes with a single charging cable. You can find instructions for creating and managing your Oura account here.
* Please note that you will need to have your own USB-A power adapter. Your Oura Ring and charging cable will not come with one.
No. The Oura Ring Gen3 is yours to keep.
Your complimentary Oura Membership will be active for 1 year. If you’d like to continue your Oura Membership after that point, that cost will not be covered by the study.
Refurbished Oura Ring devices are in excellent working condition and may feature minor cosmetic imperfections. Each unit is thoroughly cleaned, factory reset, and repackaged with all essential components.
Your Oura Ring and 1-year Oura Membership are provided at no cost. There is a one-time $20 shipping charge for the sizing kit and Oura Ring orders.
Once your order is placed, all Oura Ring orders are final and cannot be changed.
For this purpose, we encourage you to take time with the sizing kit to feel confident about your choice. Try wearing it throughout the day during your usual activities to see what’s most comfortable. A full 24 hours will give you the clearest picture of what feels best.
Please get in touch with us here email.
At this point, you will only be able to participate in the RIPPLE Study with Oura Ring provided through this study.
If you’re interested in being notified when users can connect their existing Oura accounts and Oura Ring data to Tidepool, submit your email address below.
You can stop participating in the RIPPLE Study and the TBDDP at any point. Participation is completely voluntary. Withdrawing from the RIPPLE Study does not affect your access to Tidepool services or your Oura Ring.
After you’ve logged into your account, click “Profile” in the navigation bar.
Next, select “Stop Sharing Data” under the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project section. Confirm by clicking “Yes, stop sharing.”
Note: If you choose to opt out of the TBDDP, your data will no longer be included in future datasets. However, data previously shared cannot be removed or deleted.
You will receive a notification in your in-app Membership Hub along with an email letting you know that your complimentary membership is about to expire. To continue your membership, you will need to pay the membership fee. If you choose not to continue your membership, you will no longer be able to access Oura's membership features. You will not automatically get charged to continue your membership.
Data, Privacy, & Security
After removing all identifying information, the data we provide researchers is in either .csv, .json, or .xlsx format that looks like this.
We store data in Tidepool’s secure, HIPAA-compliant servers that are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Within AWS, we use MongoDB, a popular, modern database.
Here is an example data file (6MB compressed) for our demo user, “Jill Jellyfish" before removing identifiers. It follows the Tidepool data model which is how we internally represent data.
Tidepool uses industry best practices, including end-to-end encryption, to secure your data. You can read detailed information about our security infrastructure in this document.
Tidepool strips all identifying information from data sets for the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project. In addition, Tidepool replaces your Tidepool user identifier (that looks something like 0a1b2c3d) with a “hash” value that is generated using a cryptographically secure one-way hash function. These identifiers cannot be decrypted into their original form, even by Tidepool, but they allow researchers to correlate datasets from the same user over time.
Like all health data that has had identifiers removed, there is a small risk that your data could be linked back to you if it were combined with other information outside our control. We take technical and legal steps to minimize this risk, including requiring all data partners to sign agreements that forbid anyone from trying to identify you. If a data breach were to occur, we would follow HIPAA guidelines to notify you of the details.
If you opt in and then later change your preference to opt out, your data will not be included in any future datasets.
However, data that was previously shared with researchers cannot be recalled or deleted, as it has already had identifiers removed and incorporated into existing datasets. This is explained in the informed consent form before you enroll.
Tidepool may have access to certain reproductive health-related data depending on what you choose to track and share.
If you use the Oura App to log reproductive health information—such as menstrual cycle insights (for example, cycle timing and length or pregnancy-related information)—and choose to share that data with Tidepool, it may be included in the dataset.
As part of the study, you will also be asked to complete a health survey. You can choose whether or not to share any reproductive health–related information in your responses.
In addition, Oura Ring collects physiological data such as temperature trend deviation, which contributes to metrics like your Readiness Score. While this data is not labeled as reproductive health data, it can sometimes be used to model or infer physiological states, including aspects of reproductive health such as cycle timing.
You can learn more about how Oura uses temperature trend deviation to track your cycle here, and how to manage or opt out of sharing certain data with Tidepool here.
Participation in the RIPPLE Study does not require you to share any data you do not consent to share.
Yes, you can update your preferences to stop sharing your data with Tidepool at any time. Read our support article.
Didn’t see your question? You can get in touch with us here.
Want to support diabetes research?
Whether you’d like to donate your data, or you’re interested in a donated dataset, we’re glad you’re here.
