Nothing beats a blood test (part 3)

Blood glucose monitoring is still a multiple daily event for most of us. Here are some tools from some of the bigger players Abbott and Roche, as well as newcomer Trividia Health. There’s also news from Ascensia about a study of Type 2s who improved control using heir meter-and-support system. We’re luck y to have so much choice! By Sue Marshall.

Abbott

Abbott”s FreeStyle Optium Neo

FreeStyle Optium Neo blood glucose and ketone monitoring system from Abbott not only tests your blood glucose but gives you the chance to log your insulin doses too. It even has a dose guide to help you to make a link between glucose results and insulin doses. It can tell you if you need to act on your blood glucose result. Quick and accurate, it has a clear screen (with helpfully large-digit display) with no glare, and the system is icon-driven. The meter pack includes a USB cable to download results. There are demo videos on the Abbott website on topics like ‘Low and high blood glucose results or patterns’, and ‘Mealtime insulin dose adjustments’.

 

Trividia Health

True Metrix blood glucose monitor from Trividia Healthcare

Trividia Healthcare is big in the US and is newly available in the UK. Among it’s portfolio, which includes blood glucose meters, hypo treatments and food supplements as well as sharps boxes and skincare products.

The True Metrix blood glucose monitoring portfolio is driven by science, research and technological advancement and features Triple Sense Technology which provides clinically proven accuracy and therefore confidence in test results.

The meters allow for event tagging with a series of useful icons. Trividia’s True Manager Diabetes Management Software (DMS) allows the user to download glucose results from the True portfolio of blood glucose meters, enabling users to set target ranges for multiple testing time, view patterns and trends in glucose results as well as print reports to share with your healthcare team.

The True Metrix Go is they say, ‘small in size, big on features’ as it’s fast, easy to use and has a compact design offering great convenience as it neatly fits into its GoPak ‘cozzie’, a little neoprene wrap that holds the entire system in one place: meter, strips and mini lancing device.

Meanwhile the True Metrix Air has wireless capability, meaning that results are seamlessly delivered to a linked mobile device in order to provide simple tracking and insights.

 

Roche Diabetes Care

Accu-Chek Mobile with Fastclix lancing device attached.

Roche Diabetes Care continues to support it’s existing range of Accu-Chek Nano, Expert and Mobile blood glucose systems as well as looking at introducing new options and innovations in the future.

The truly all-in-one Accu-Chek Mobile now connects to the company’s free basic MySugr app via a wireless adaptor (current Accu-Chek Mobile users can order their free adapter on the website). The basic app allows logging, analysis, CSV reports some limited tagging capacity, some motivational challenges as well as a limited insulin calculator. More than just logging blood glucose results, MySugr Pro, which costs £2.99 a month, offers access to a a full insulin calculator, a basal rate calculator for pump users, any multi-device syncing. lets you include photos of meals, blood test reminders plus exportable reports for sharing with healthcare professionals. A quick andeasy way to log of blood glucose results, it can evenestimate your next HbA1c result. It can even act as a motivating tool, giving you feedback on your results in order to keep you on the right track.

On Roche Diabetes Care’s website there are more tools, such as a downloadable guide to the benefits of testing in pairs, for example before and after meals or exercise. There’s also a module on counting carbs on the site, plus Accu-Chek 360° View tool can help you address issues step by step, including hypo- and hyperglycaemic events.

Desang Diabetes Magazine is our free-to-receive digital journal (see below). We cover diabetes news, diabetes management equipment (diabetes ‘kit’ such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring equipment) and news about food suitable for a diabetic diet including a regular Making Carbs Count column. We just need your email address to subscribe you (it really is free, and you can easily unsubscribe should you wish to).

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