Hello All. I have been researching glucometers and have found quite a mix of reviews. I currently have a One Touch Ultra Mini that is HORRIBLE!! It is off by about 20 points either way. A Dexcom isn’t much good if the calibrations are off!! Thanks in advancee.
Contour Next One. It’s one of the highest rated meters and the strips are inexpensive compared to many of the others.
Also, it is small.
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I have been using the Roche Accu-Chek Aviva Connect glucometer for a few years. Before that I used another Roche meter, Accu-Chek Aviva. During my last visit to the lab for a plasma glucose measurement, I did three fingersticks immediately after the blood draw. They were 88, 88, and 92, for an average of 89.3 mg/dL or 5.0 mmol/L. The lab reading came back at 89 mg/dL.
There are other accurate meters available, but as you note, they are not all good. The Diabetes Technology Society ran a surveillance program in 2018 that looked at 18 meters. They only found 6 that passed all three test it performed.
Here are the details of the 6 meters that passed.
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Contour Next (any of their models are quite accurate).
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Thanx.
I like count our next and strips are dirt on amazon, example 23$ for 100 and 82 for 400. These are new from suppliers. Have found on ebay but some are expired, not to say they won’t work. I ran out and am using accu-check alive strips that expired in 2015 will waiting on new. With prime onyx 2 day shipping
Predictive typing is killing me, sorry all
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Contour Next (I use the Link model, but the others are good as well) has served me well, small & simple.
Contour Next is my choice. I had the One Touch meters for ages since they were covered by my health plan. Doing 10-15 fingersticks a day, I would still have major hypos (and yes I checked out my pump settings). Anyway, the One Touch read much higher than actual. So…I was correcting high bg’s I wasn’t really having, ignoring pending lows that my Dexcom was warning me about, and sometimes correcting for a high bg when in reality I was below 60! Learned about the Diabetes Technology Society reports and others and switched. I have to pay out of pocket, but it is worth it. And to make matters worse, the endo said he knew that the One Touch wasn’t great (especially for people like me with chronic anemia) but didn’t tell me nor take steps to have the HMO cover the more accurate meter!!!
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Even worse than One Touch ( I used countless models of theirs,dating back to around 1992), is the the Accucheck Compact and Compact Plus (they are motorized) which, as actual bg’s rise to roughly 150, the meters begin their bias towards far higher numbers than is correct. By the time one is actually around 180-200, those freaking meters would read about 40 points too high. That is why for the years that I used them, I’d get hypos from correcting “fake” highs. They were for sure, the worst meters I used, other than some other brands back in the 1990’s that were random number generators. One, made by Medisense was about the size of a credit card, had a gold-toned screen and was so incredibly inaccurate, I think I had it less than a week, and returned it to the pharmacy for a refund, which was granted. That thing should have never passed the FDA. The mfg also had a pen shaped meter that had a screen so tiny I don’t know how anyone could read it.
I’m glad I switched to Contour Next meters 4 years ago (I got one with my current Medtronic insulin pump). The Link’s screen is hard to see outdoors, so I got the EZ, and after that, I got a couple of Next One’s which are my favorite. The EZ is actually the easiest to read in direct sunlight, but I still mostly use the One’s.
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And to make matters worse, there is no FDA requirement to re-evaluate accuracy once a meter is cleared for the market.
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I use the cvs advanced on the less expensive end and highly rated.
It been pretty consistent for me
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Well, I just got a notice from my doctor that her office will not preauthorize medications. What’s the deal? Is this a new “racket” to make more money? You would think an inaccurate meter would not be desirable for a treating doctor.
This is my experience with the one touch verio also…
Sorry, Tim, if I was confusing. I was venting. I had called for a preauthorization for a new meter as my insurance won’t cover anything except One Touch without preauthorization. My doctor said they don’t do preauthorizations. I was just wondering if this is a “new” thing now days to not preauthorize…another way to make money by forcing people to get inferior products that probably make someone a lot of money in markups. I hope this makes some sense!!
Yeah - more sense.
lol
Nothing wrong with venting.
We used the One Touch Ultra strips for years. I was fine with that. I do prefer the Contour Next strips (which we use now) but if we needed to go back to the One Touch Ultra - that would not be a huge deal for me.
I really like link, better features like reminders but only links with. Use next now to link with contour care. Like it better than Medtronics carelink or whatever. Could never get to work rigjt, although I hear they have made some changes. If they ever make it work on crime might try again.
I’ve been using Freestyle Lite for many years and I’m very happy with them. Good inter-test reliability, good reliability with respect to Hba1c, small, robust, easy to change battery, and I’ve used the lamp once or twice.
Also found out once that it’s easy to find a replacement if you lose your glucometer in a strange country.
Good luck.
M.
The best one for me is Abbott FreeStyle Lite. It’s not very expensive and has got many positive reviews.