Since BD is exiting the blood glucose meter market, Minimed has been looking for a new partner to produce a meter which will “beam” blood glucose results directly to the pump. They announced a few days ago that it would be a One Touch meter: http://wwwp.medtronic.com/Newsroom/NewsReleaseDetails.do?itemId=1187707491527&lang=en_US
Hooray, no more crappy BD meter. My insurance will actually cover One Touch test strips too!
Excellent news. Jill, thanks for posting it here. Goodbye BD and now goodbye Novomax.
I’m not trying to be cynical, but just making an observation, because this is good news for us MiniMed pump users, but not such a big deal for us Minimed/Dexcom hybrids.
Dexcom’s CGM requires the Lifescan One-Touch Ultra for calibration. Wanna bet this new Lifescan meter will be made purposefully incompatible with the Dexcom CGM?
It’s just business, you know.
Terry
Can you clarify this a bit more, Terry? I am looking into getting into a Dexcom but honestly I didn’t quite understand what you meant… what do you do currently? You have your Minimed pump with the BD Link AND a Lifescan One-Touch Ultra to help you calibrate the Dexcom?
Manny,
I don’t use the BD at all any more. I use the Lifescan exclusively so I can calibrate the Dexcom. I enter my BGs manually into the Minimed Pump when I bolus. So - no - I don’t use two meters. What a pain in the a** THAT would be.
The part that is a pain is that you can’t download pump readings and CGM readings into the same software program. They have to be downloaded separately and pieced together in a spreadsheet or printed out the reports to cover identical time periods so one can lay them side by side for comparison.
Terry
Yeah! I was with a One Touch meter pre pump. I think I will be glad to get back to it.
We actually never switched to BD meter from One Touch Ultra when we went on a pump, even though the meter was set to us with the pump.
For one, I really liked our meter, and two, insurance has no issues covering the test strips for OneTouch.
Plus, all those new cool colors they are coming out with 
I use the minimed & BD. Works great! Meter is very basic and doesn’t have a backlight. I was using the ultrasmart so it was a big change to go to a dummy meter but I like the communication with the pump & online log.
I’m anxious to see what they’ll add.
I just wanted to share that I happened to be on the phone with a Minimed rep on friday afternoon so I asked her about the new meter.
She said they dont know anything about the meter other than it will be a One Touch meter. I asked if it would be compatiable with my current 715 pump and she wasnt even sure of that.
She said they are still in the basic design phase and hope to be releasing the meter in Spring 2008…and thats pretty much the extent of their (the reps) knowledge at this point.
Me too.
I think it is going to be awhile before we see the new meter for the Minimed pumps…I still have my BD link meter, but after these several boxes of strips are gone I am not buying more…In Canada we are waiting on a Bayer model, based on the Contour meter, which is the other meter I use - so I am hoping that the strips are the same!
I do not mind entering my BG reading into the pump, but I also use the CGMS so I am entering the reading only 2 - 3 times in a 24 hour period…BUT a linked meter is easier, but I turn the link function OFF as to not over calibrate my sensors!!
Thanks! I had troubles with the BD meter… The reading were weird! Yeah!!!
Interesting that this weekend I couldn’t find BD test strips in my local pharmacy for the first time ever…
I wish the the One Touch would use the amount of blood that the BD meter uses. I other words not much but I would rather use the One touch because I get 200 strips for 10 bucks!!!
FYI, check this out since you are using the Contour:
http://www.tudiabetes.com/forum/topic/show?id=583967%3ATopic%3A82768