A handheld diabetes manager has a flight mode that cooperatively interacts with an external medical device and includes a port configured to receive a test strip for blood glucose measurement, a blood glucose measurement module operable with the test strip, a communications module and a user interface module. The communications module selectively communicates wirelessly with an external medical device. The user interface module communicates with the blood glucose measurement module and the communications module and operates to provide a graphical user interface on a display of the diabetes manager. The graphical user interface includes a screen with a flight mode option. When the flight mode option is enabled and the external medical device is paired and currently communicating with the diabetes manager, the user interface module interacts with the communication module to send a command to the external medical device to turn off wireless communication of the external medical device.