We have used these for years, I thought I read here that they were really the same strips as the regular freestyle and just put out under a different name for marketing reasons. In light of the recent recall on freestyle strips in the omnipod, I am hesitant to wait forever to speak with abbot about this as I know they will say they are not approved... we did a test with Jacob's freestyle freedom meter and his omnipod and they were very close. It is disheartening how a company can call such a fuss over something that probably isn't even significant.
Freestyle Lite strips are different from the regular Freestyle strips, or at least used to be. I was using a Freestyle Mini (Freestyle Flash in the U.S.) when the Freestyle Lite came out, and when I switched to the new meter I also had to switch to the new strips.
freestyle lite strips are not approved for use with the omnipod ... only freestyle regulars
This is what you will hear if you call the omnipod product support line.
No, they are not the same, and produce radically different, wildly inaccurate results.
My pharmacist made the mistake of filling my prescription once with Lite's instead of the regular ones approved for the Omnipod. I was really puzzled because the readings I was getting were way off from what I felt like. I don't remember exactly what direction they were wrong (too low, or too high) its been so long, but I think it was in the safer direction -- reading lower than actual -- which would explain two things:
- My vague feeling/memory that what alerted me to them being wrong was the meter indicating real hypo (50's or something) and me not feeling it at all, when I should have.
- Jacob not having regular mysterious hypo episodes with you all using these strips to make insulin administration decisions.
Keep in mind that a problem like this can easily get masked by pump settings -- i.e. ratios, targets, correction factor (more that one than the others), insulin duration of action, etc. -- to compensate. For example if early on Jacob was having hypos on a regular basis, you might have increase the correction factor, IC, etc., thinking these were off.
Bottom line: These Lite strips in the Omnipod PDM give very inaccurate results. And the issue is not a constant offset in the number -- there's some scaling issues too, so it's more off at some ranges than others.
Now, all that said, through my own experimentation I've found that new Insulinx test strips work the same as the regular Freestyle strips (within the state accuracy error bounds of the meter), and vice versa. So I used Freestyle strips, for which I have a prescription, in my free Insulinx meter as my backup.
dave thanks for your thoughtful reply it seems like his omnipod really reads pretty close to accurate, but there are those times that he reads a bit low and doesn't really notice it but probably would if he got up and moved around a bit soooo I guess I should cancel his refill and have his endo call in a new rx for the regular free styles to be safe. his A1c's also pretty much jives with his meter averages but it is still better to be cautious. I really appreciate your input!