I have an Accu-Chek Aviva Glucose monitor and would like to be able to upload the numbers from the monitor onto my PC for record keeping. And okay, I am a techno geek.
I know that Accu-chek has their own software program 360 something but the cost is around $44 - 49 which is a bit steep.
I am wondering if anyone here uses their program and will comment on if they like it or not. Also, perhaps there might be other program recommendations?
Hi Norma,
first you will need the device to connect your Aviva meter to your PC. It may be that the 360 software can use the IR port to read from the meter but I do not know this for sure. If your PC has no IR port then you can only use the Accu-Chek SmartPix device which costs around $30. It may be that there is a less expensive connector but the SmartPix has also integrated analysis software (not as good as the 360) and it will store the meter values in an XML file on the device. This means you can upload the XML file to our Glucosurfer.org project for further analysis. The Glucosurfer will allow you to share your diary for a period of time with your doctor or the community - to discuss a recent development etc.
In my opinion it is not enough to analyse the meter values alone. Maybe you can go one step further and use your mobile phone (via WAP or HTML) to manage your Glucosurfer diary online. This way you can enter your glucose, activity and insulin directly in your mobile phone and keep your diary always up-to-date. As a nice side effect our service will calculate the insulin dosage according to your current carbohydrate factors and other parameters. I have seen that you are using oral treatment now and this can be documented too. Please let me know if this is sufficient for your purpose.
In addition to the software, you have to buy the cable. I think I figured out it was close to $70 for the software & cable if you don’t have an IR port on your computer (I don’t.) If you do have an IR port, that price goes down by about $25.
I’ve been using www.sugarstats.com for tracking glucose, meds, activity, and diet. The first two (glucose/meds) are free, if you want to track activity & diet it’s like $8/month or cheaper if you subscribe for several months at a time.
It’s not perfect - I wish there were better graphs & reports - but overall it’s very easy to use which is a big plus in my mind. I can type in all my daily info on one form pretty quickly.
The people who own the website are constantly upgrading it, and they are working on the reports/graphs. It also takes mobile phone entries, and tracks doctor visits and exams. I highly recommend it.
Given that I still have to type in meds/activity/food, the cable to automatically update from my Aviva isn’t worth the money for me. It only takes a couple more minutes to do my glucose readings as well.
A year and a half ago when I noticed that a new blood pressure med was messing with my sugar readings, I started an Excel spreadsheet and set up columns for date, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar at various times of the day, exercise, how I’m doing with diet, and how I feel. I spend a few minutes updating it daily (or, well, sometimes I skip some days, but then my meter keeps track of the blood sugar readings for those days and I at least fill them in next time I update, and I can usually remember exercise and how I feel). If I change meds I use a row to record that, so I can see what the med changes do to everything. That way I don’t have the sense that someone somewhere in Internet-land has my stats (which I know, today, the sites are secure, but since I have this spreadsheet all set up, it’s just as easy as doing it online).