I wish meter companies would make meters with speech output that were accessible to people with visual impairments. Here in Canada the only talking meter costs $300 from Accu-Chek. No other choice … In the U.S. there are a few talking meters from unknown companies where accuracy of results is questionable … I want my Contour USB to talk, no reason why it couldn’t be made to other than a complete lack of interest from companies. (I wish pump companies would make a talking pump, too!)
The Contour USB has an alarm feature like that which you can set to go off however long after you tested.
And the OneTouch UltraSmart allows logging of carbs/fats/cals as well as medication/insulin doses, exercise, etc., as well as graphing glucose results on the meter and displaying averages and statistics.
Check out the Multiclix lancing device, it hold six lancets in a drum that you can change by just twisting the end. There’s a discussion about the Multiclix on the front pages of the discussions here, even.
The Contour USB meets the first three of those wishes …
The meters and the cases are not made just for right handed diabetics. Lefties have rights also.
I wish they would allow the ones already on their meters to get a special incentives also. Geez we are already buying your strips let us have the freebies too.
Yes, it is better for a diabetic to have more than 1 meter at a time. I use the expensive ones at home and the cheaper ones when I am out and about. I do a lot of volunteering and most of the places I volunteer at do not have a safe place for me to put my meter. I do not want to take a chance of loosing a $75 to $80 dollar meter.
When I was diagnosed in 1984, my meter (Glucometer 2, by Ames) was $800 and it took months to order. It was reaslly small at the time. Each strip (glucostix) cost $0.25. Now each strip is $1 and the most expensive meter is what, $100, maybe?
Before I got the meter, I had to have a watch with a second hand, that I wore all the time, to count the seconds between putting the blood on the strip and when you had to blot. Then time again when you were supposed to read. When the meter arrived, I didn’t need the watch anymore. That thing had a steel shell, I think.
Oh, and remember the guillotine…the Ames Autolet? Not only were the lancets huge, but you had to watch it go down on your finger. Ouch! Those lancing devices sure have come a long way.
My grandpa has dexterity problems and he uses the Breeze 2 meter. Not sure if that is something you want to try, but they sent him a new meter when he asked.
I do, Khurt.
My boyfriend works for Genentech, which was acquired by Roche. They still call it Genentech, because we’re in the US, and they are keeping the name recognition. It cost millions to develop Humulin insulin, and that was available to us in the 1980’s. I know that biological drugs, which insulins and many cancer drugs are, currently have 20 years to recover costs in the US before another company is allowed to make generics. The new health care bill will reduce that to 12 years, I believe, so when it costs a company 20 years of research and $5 billion to get a drug finally approved by the FDA, they will basically have to charge twice as much for half as much time to recover their costs. You also have to take into account when they do the research, sometimes millions of dollars are put into efforts that fail, so they have to recover those costs elsewhere.
Update their meter software to work with 64 bit Windows 7. These computers are becoming increasingly common, and will soon become the standard It is fairly easy to get printer drivers etc. why not meter software?
32 bit Windows still accounts for over 60% of the installed WIndows base. Considering that 32 bit Windows software often does not work on 64 bit Windows I can understand the reluctance to invest development dollars into 64bit drivers. The only benefit of a 64 bit OS is that the system can support more memory. Most consumers don’t run applications that require more than 4 GB of memory. It’s market economics.
I’ve received at least three FREE OneTouch Mini glucometers just by filling out a form … each one with a different Gmail address.
How many lefties compared to rights are people with diabetes? Would sales change if they made one specially for lefties? No. Again. Market economics drive product development.
Market economics says that the more of something you can make the more you can drive down the marginal costs. I assume that the reason the talking meter costs $300 is that their does not exists a significant market for talking meters when compared to market for regular meters. I can buy an iPod for a few hundred dollars because Apple can sell millions of them. If they could only sell a few then I expect that iPod would cost as much as a small car.
So while we are dreaming up “perfect” meters — a daunting task given the variety of wants above — here is mine:
- An attachement for my iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad that works as a glucometer.
- A CGMS that uses Bluetooth to transmit readings directly to software in my iPad/iPhone
- Software for iOS that can track trends, export reading to social networks, and fully integrated with Google Health. It should also be able to upload reading to a web site with similar functionality
I fully expect none of this to happen give that once the iPad/iPhone starts to take readings it becomes a medical device requiring full testing and FDA approval. And Apple is NOT going tp take on that liability. Imagine Apple waiting years to get it’s new iPhone approved before it can sell it.
I’m so glad someone understands this. I work for a biopharma in the US and I know how much it cost us when a new drug or compound fails approvals. It’s in the millions — sometimes tens of millions. The finance people know exactly how much they need to charge to recoup costs and make a specific profit. When a drug is not approved the entire research, clinical trials, and FDA fees are a loss. Sometimes a product never makes it to market because a competitor beat us to it. Same outcome. So, in effect the “winners” — the ones making it to market — have to pay for the costs of the “losers” the public never sees.
No economic incentive to make and sell meters made 10 years ago. Since the patent on that 10 year old technology has probably already expired nothing prevent an enterprising Chinese company from making them. Can you provide data that shows the meters from 10 years ago were more accurate.
You are right, in a way … However, the ironic thing about the example you picked is the Apple is one of the few companies who makes their products totally accessible. The iPod and other iProducts, as well as every Apple computer, has built-in speech output which, once turned on, allows someone with little to no vision to use all features of the device totally independently.
I wish they would do the same for meters. Making “regular” meters accessible rather than having to rely on “special” clunky $300 models or meters from unknown companies. It doesn’t cost that much to put a speech chip in there (watches and other under-$10 products have them) and then put an option under the meter settings to turn it on or off. Like Apple products, most people who didn’t need it probably wouldn’t even notice it was there.
Or a speech chip … watches and other cheap products have them, they can’t be that expensive—especially if it were included in all products by default.
The Accu-Chek meter is a halfhearted attempt and the beeps aren’t all that useful. If you don’t happen to hear/count them correctly the first time there is no way of repeating, and of course none of the meter settings, memory functions, and instruction screens (like “apply blood”) aren’t accessible.
I think this would require a little more than just “put in a speech chip”. SInce it’s a medical device it would have to ensure that the readings are converted to the correct speech. That would require a more robust speech chip than the one in a watch. Does a medical display have the same cheap electronic parts in a video game console? No.