The blood glucose meter battle is heating up. And we are winning.
Coincidentally or not, two of the biggest diabetes companies say that they have new meters. And industry scuttlebutt says that the other major meter company has one coming soon.
Abbott Diabetes Care announced that the Food and Drug Administration has cleared its new FreeStyle Freedom. This meter uses the same small blood sample of 0.3 microliters as previous FreeStyle meters. But it is faster, providing test results in just five seconds.
Abbott says that we can use the FreeStyle Freedom on alternative sites – like our forearms – and that it will be easy to read and easy to hold. The company says that it will be available in April.
Roche Diagnostics, which calls all of its meters Accu-Chek, announced that it is now selling its Accu-Chek Compact Plus. This new meter includes a drum of 17 test strips and a Softclix Plus lancet device that can be detached.
Like the FreeStyle Freedom, the Accu-Chek Compact Plus can use alternative sites. But it takes quite a bit more blood than the FreeStyle meters, requiring a sample size of 1.5 microliters. It is as fast as the FreeStyle Freedom, giving results in five seconds.
The other big meter company, the LifeScan division of Johnson & Johnson, is coming out with an update to its One Touch Ultra meter, according to David Kliff. He writes the “Diabetic Investor Newsletter”. “Look for the Ultra II to receive FDA approval in the very near future,” David reports by email. But, he adds, “it’s a good bet that it will have some new bells and whistles, but nothing earth-shattering.”
In fact, each of these meters are just small steps forward. Yet these small steps do add up, and less blood and less wait time is better for everyone with diabetes.
This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.
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Here is a link to the press release outlining ISO certification for non invasive glucose monitoring:
http://www.cnsx.ca/Storage/1263/114105_20100211_-_Biosign_Glucometry.pdf
Seems to me that both of these new products will be obsolete.
Biosign Technologies has developed a NON INVASIVE blood glucose monitor!
I have looked into Biosign Technologies. Apparently they are a public company currently trading on a small Canadian exchange called the CNQ. Biosign has just announced a 4.5M dollar private placement, which makes me think they havn’t been ‘discovered’ by a medical giant yet.
Their product is a wrist cuff that resembles a typical blood pressure monitor. You connect it to your computer via USB or I believe by Bluetooth. The monitor takes a reading of your blood pressure and computes blood glucose using proprietary software algorithms. The measurement is completely NON INVASIVE! Clinical studies have indicated that the glucose measurements are 98% accurate to labratory invasive testing results!
Blood pressure and glucose readings are then stored on your computer and can be sent to medical professionals via email etc. It looks like Microsoft has certified Biosign as a partner of some sort which makes me think that a relationship of some sort is budding there.
Non invasive glucose monitoring is the Holy Grail of Diabetic monitoring. And it has been discovered. This paradigm shift will not occur ten years down the road. It will happen NOW. This is very exciting!!!
The potential for this product is infinite. The benefits to those suffering diabetes (as my Grandfather did) are obvious. I am not a diabetic, but would love to monitor my blood pressure and glucose levels as part of my health concious lifestyle. I can’t wait till this product becomes available as I think it would be neat to monitor my blood glucose levels throughout my work day, pre and post workouts etc…..