Medisense pen bg meter, called the "ExacTech" was available 10-15 years ago. It was the size of a ballpoint pen. It used the same strips as the later "Medisense Precision" which was was bigger than the pen, but was smaller than most current meters (although not the size of a Nano). May have been later branded "Q.I.D.".
I agree with you that it doesn’t seem to be more accurate than my other One Touch meters. I do like the small sample size though.
If you want to extend battery life, turn off the mealtime tagging. Then it will last a couple of weeks on one charge. The pattern alert technology is very primitive and only examines readings from 3 days at a time. Not worth the bother for me especially since I use a pump and CGM and have tons of information from those devices.
My Pharmacist gave me a Verio about a month ago. I normally get 3 boxes of Ultra 2 strips a month, so I was concerned about getting 3 boxes of Verio instead and perhaps decide that i didn't like it. My Pharmacist said that she could give me 2 boxes of Ultra 2 and one box of Verio and our Insurance would okay it. So I agreed.
I was disappointed that the case is longer than the Ultra 2 as is the meter, although the meter is slimmer. I do like that this meter takes less blood. I prefer that I put the blood on the tip of the strip but with the Verio, it sucks it in on the sides of the strip. This is easily fixed by sliding the Verio out of its case lodging about an inch however.
On occasion, my Ultra 2 picker will drop on the floor and the top just pops off.
The Verio comes with the Delica which reminds me of a cheap toy which I don't plan on using.
A charger is included with the Verio for the lithium batteries. When fully charged they last about 2 weeks which I'm not too happy about since the Ultra 2 batteries last about 3 months or more. On the other hand just because the notice that 'needs charging' comes up on the Verio, you can still use it to test a few times before it dies. It takes about 2 hours to charge the batteries although you can use it anytime during the charging period to test, if needed.
Maybe its just me but it seems to display test results faster. Big numbers and lights up. The results can be variable on occasion but are close to my year old Ultra 2 test results for the most part.
Been busy so I haven't had time to read the included booklet yet.
The 2 weeks is quite wrong for battery life. Maybe I've got a dud, but once/week for me.
The thing I like is the pattern recognition - especially with me a newbie.
From the booklet, it looks very accurate.
For tests <75mg/dL, 58% of the meters were +/-5mg/dL; 100% were +/-10mg/dL.
For tests >75mg/dL, 69% were +/-5%; 93% were +/-10%.
Seems pretty good to me.
Those of us who use the Dexcom CGM have to put in two BG readings when starting a new sensor. That is really a good test of whether the meter gives consistent readings. I don’t expect the two readings to be exactly the same, but with the Verio I’ve had several times where the two readings are 40-50 points apart, for example 140 on the first reading and 100 on the second reading. Those are the sort of things that make me question whether the Verio is more accurate than my Ping meter that uses the blue One Touch strips.
As I mentioned in my previous post, if you want to get good battery life, you have to turn off tagging. When you turn off the tagging, the meter turns off immediately when you pull out the strip. If you use tagging, it turns itself off after two minutes unless you hold down the button until it turns off.
I am one who really prefers regular batteries in my medical devices rather than rechargeable. Although my Ping meter needs new batteries every 6-8 weeks, my other One Touch meters have always gone years and years between battery changes. Making rechargeable meters fixes a problem that I ever had.
My doctor gave me a Verio about 6 months ago. Things I like about it are the back lighting (I can test in dim light), the thinner meter, smaller samples of blood needed and it does seems faster and the reading displays clearer. The lancet seems to have a smoother action too. The things I don't like about it is having to plug it in to charge it, having to be careful that I do not bend the test strip as I put it in the meter (it is very thin) & the side blood application on the test strip seems harder (awkward angle), although it does very easily absorb blood samples. I have less "Error" messages than the other One Touch I had. I used to hate it when I didn't get enough blood on the strip but it would start the countdown anyways, and then tell me "error the sample is too small". Then why did you start the countdown in the first place meter! :) I always thought is was a way for the drug companies to get us to use more strips lol. Overall I am happy with the Verio. It took a little bit to get used to, as with all new meters. I don't really use the mealtime tagging and thanks to a previous posters advice I will turn it off and save some battery life. It seems funny that we get new gadgets like this with the tiniest of improvements when all we really want is a cure. I would gladly use my old meters if it meant these companies could save the money to research a cure. But then I guess they wouldn't be making all this money off of us. :(
I was offered a free Verio by my doctor's office. It seemed to be ok, but I prefer a linked meter; so I said "No , thanks" If they still have them, I may go get one from the dr's office to try it out. Still have to get a prior auth to get the strips. The only meter my insurance company will approve w/o prior authorization is he Accucheck.
God Bless,
Brunetta