This past two weeks I have been trying two new smart blood glucose meters, where ‘smart’ means the meter has the ability to log not just take meter readings but also record and store carb and and insulin data and to calculate bolus doses.
Which makes these meters ideal for people who count carbs and practise intensive insulin therapy to control and monitor their diabetes.
The Accu-Chek Aviva Expert is quite big for a meter, especially in terms of thickness and weight which gives it a rather dumpy look. It looks somewhat old fashioned and has a 90s feel about it, sort of like phones were just before the iPhone came out.
But it has a comfortable, rounded shape to it and fits easily in my hand. It has a bright, clear colour display and nine hardware buttons arranged in a central button and arrows style familiar from remote controls and the like.
- Fully featured meter with every feature you could want including carb recording and bolus calculations.
- Accounts for active insulin in bolus calculations.
- Allows different insulin and carbohydrate ratios to be set for different times of day.
- Bright, colour display.
- Extensive reports and graphs.
- Ability to export data to a computer for further anlysis and printing out for medical appointments.
- Has by far the best stabber. Pain free and has a 6 lancet cartridge system.
- Small display can be hard to read.
- The user interface is fiddly and quite clunky although over time I got used to it.
- Setup and settings are quite complicated especially the multi time zone insulin ratios.
- The Accu-Check strips I find annoying as they require, relatively speaking, a lot of blood and don’t suck it up unless you get the position and angle just right.
- The PC software for reports and analysis costs money!
- Uses an Infra Red USB connection which is not the most common thing. They supply one with the software.
The Feestyle InsulLinx is slimmer than the Aviva Expert and looks considerably more sleek, modern and stylish. It has a much larger and despite having no colour is much easier to read having a simple, direct and clear style. It is though not as bright as the Aviva, although it does have a backlight for when you are using it in low light.
It has a single hardware button, that acts as a “Home” key and the rest of the operation is done via the touch screen.
Note though that this is not a capacitive touch screen like on your phone, but an old school touch screen that requires quite deliberate and precise presses.
- Fully featured meter with every feature you could want including carb recording and bolus calculations.
- Accounts for active insulin in bolus calculations.
- Allows different insulin and carbohydrate ratios to be set for different times of day.
- Simple, easy to use User Interface.
- Large easy to read touchscreen display.
- Awesome FreeStyle strips that require a tiny drop of blood and are super easy to fill. These really are the best strips.
- Comes with the software on the meter and a USB cable is supplied. Plug it into your computer and the software will be automatically installed.
- Uses a standard mini USB cable which comes supplied and you probably have a number already.
- Insanely tedious up and down buttons for entering carb amounts without any facility to accelerate by holding down the button.
- Old school touch screen is somewhat annoying especially as it’s not always obvious where you need to press. Although this is largely as we have been spoiled with modern phones and all it requires is adjusting to a slow and deliberate approach.
- No facility (that I could find) to edit data once entered. This seems crazy to me.
- Has a terrible stabber. Although you can easily enough acquire one from another meter if you don’t get on with this one.
The Aviva Expert was the first of these meters I used and I liked it a lot from the outset.
Yes it’s hard to set up, has some confusing options and what is at times a fiddly UI but suddenly having everything I need to record in the meter so there is a good chance I will actually capture this information was great. And despite the fiddliness, I adapted to the meter and was using it comfortably within a few days.
But then the I got an InsulLinx and it was great, a joy to use and, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in everyway. The Aviva with its 1990s crap phone vibe suddenly seemed old fashioned and was surely doomed. Also Aviva sounds like an insurance firm or maybe a type of van.
But after its sleek, modern charms wore off I ran into two problems.
First I entered a reading wrong and couldn’t find anyway to edit it after confirming the entry. This seems nuts to me, but is, I guess, liveable with given how the accuracy of one or two readings hardly matters.
Secondly, when I ate my first large bowl of pasta with dessert meal and was faced with entering 83g in the carbs slot. This requires holding down the up button as the number makes its way slowly from 15 to 83.
OH DEAR GOD THIS IS TEDIOUS.
I have to do this every time I eat? 3 or 4 times a day? Really?
Sorry, this is a dealbreaker for me.
Colon hypen open paranthesis as the young people, with whom I am down, say.
So, with some regret, I will be using the Accu-Chek. I love everything about the InsulLinx except the fact that the thing its actually for — entering data — is insanely annoying.
Thanks to the lovely people at Whittington Hospital for providing me with both meters.