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testing one two threeTRANSCRIPT
ISSUE 15
magazineDESANG
PLUS • New Products • Groovy giveaways • News (for T1 and T2)
RiSe of the machineSThe new breed of blood test meters
meteRgaLLeRy:A look at meters so sophisticated they’re now called ‘systems’.
Do your patients need better glycaemic control with less fear of hypoglycaemia?To find out how OneTouch® Verio®Pro can help your patients, call: 1-800-123-4567 or visit: www.lifescan.com
Suitable for patients on insulin who test several times a day and regularly make their own treatment decisions
The NEW Glycaemic self-management system with:
Unsurpassed accuracy*Close–to-lab accuracy**
OneTouch® GlucoFilter® technologyFilters substances that interfere with test accuracy, in just 5 seconds
Tools for optimizing insulin therapy: High and Low Pattern ToolAutomatically informs your patients of low patterns in their blood glucose results so they can consider insulin therapy adjustments
* Based on laboratory comparisons using venous blood. When compared with: Accu-Chek® Active, Accu-Chek® Mobile, Accu-Chek® Aviva, Accu-Chek® Compact Plus, Bayer Contour®, Bayer Contour® USB, Elta Satellite, FreeStyle Lite® (with ZipWik™), Glucocard™ G and WaveSense™ Jazz, no other system was more accurate than OneTouch® Verio®Pro. Results on file.
** +/- 15% at or above 4.4 mmol/L and +/- 0.7 mmol/L below 4.4 mmol/L. LifeScan, LifeScan Logo, OneTouch®, OneTouch® GlucoFilter® and OneTouch® Verio®Pro are trademarks of LifeScan Inc.© 2010 LifeScan Inc. AW 096-864A
Accurate results you can trust!
On insulin and regularly making your own insulin dosing decisions?OneTouch® Verio®Pro may be suitable for your needs.
To order your FREE* meter trial visit OneTouchMeters.co.uk/DSGor call 0800 279 4142 (UK) 1800 930 120 (ROI) quoting code AE143 Lines open 8.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm Sat
1. OneTouch® GlucoFilter® corrects for the presence of certain substances that, when present at therapeutic levels, commonly interfere with accurate blood glucose results, such as paracetamol and Vitamin C.
*TERMS AND CONDITIONSOffer open to insulin users resident in the UK aged 16 or over only, excluding existing users of a OneTouch® UltraEasy®, OneTouch® Ultra®2, OneTouch® Vita® or OneTouch® UltraSmart® Blood Glucose meter. Offer closing date 31st December 2011. Those eligible to participate in the free meter trial will be offered a OneTouch® Verio®Pro Blood Glucose meter, 25 test strips and a questionnaire about their experience of using the OneTouch® Verio®Pro to complete and return in the reply paid envelope provided. Only one free OneTouch® Verio®Pro Blood Glucose meter trial per person. Meters are subject to availability. This offer is limited to a maximum of 4,000 free OneTouch® Verio®Pro meters. Allow 28 days for delivery.
LifeScan, LifeScan Logo, OneTouch® , OneTouch® UltraEasy®, OneTouch® Ultra®2, OneTouch® Vita®, OneTouch® UltraSmart® and OneTouch® Verio®Pro are trademarks of LifeScan Inc. © 2011 LifeScan Inc. 11-212 AW 097-500B
www.LifeScan.co.uk
Our new glycaemic self-management system provides you with:
Accuracy where it counts - at low glucose, at high glucose and everywhere in between.
OneTouch® GlucoFilter®
Corrects for the presence of many substances that interfere with test accuracy.1
Tools for optimising your insulin: High and Low PatternAutomatically tells you when it spots patterns in blood glucose results so youcan consider if an insulin therapy adjustment is needed.
Making your own insulin dosing decisions?
corrects for the presence of certain substances that, when present at therapeutic levels, commonly interfere with
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7596-LifeScan_Desang_Advert-v3-A4.indd 1 08/09/2011 16:52
CONTENTS
Published by Desang Ltd the aim of this newsletter is to bring news and information to people living with diabetes. Please check all matters concerning how you handle your health with your healthcare team. We welcome any feedback on the magazine or ideas for future articles.
Editor: Sue Marshall [email protected] dESign: rehabdesign
Editor’s comment...
8
CELEBRATE CHOCOLATE In THE nEws, swEET EvE Is A wHOLE wEEk dEdICATEd TO THE BEsT Of THIs wORsHIppEd fOOdsTuff, OnCE sAvORy And nOw mAInLy swEET, kEEp TO HIgH COCOA COnTEnT OpTIOns fOR BETTER BLOOd gLuCOsE COnTROL.
Back in the day, blood test meters were far from portable and took
several minutes to count-down and give you a test result. Boy, have things changed. Now you can get ones with colour screens, personalize them with your own photos, refer to them for info on carbohydrate contents of foods as well as ask them to advise you on your next insulin dose. In our feature we look at these and assess their innovative improvements. Our Meter Gallery shows the new kids on the block, but bear in mind that some of these meters are only available from your clinic because these are much more than ‘just’ a blood test meter...
Sue Marshall
Front cover: The Accu-Chek Aviva Expert blood test system.
The NEWS is sponsored by Bayer Healthcare.
4 DIABETES KIT BBI healthcare’s HypoWallet.
We have 10 to giveaway. BD AutoShield Safety Pen Needle helps prevent accidental needlestick injuries. The RapidCalc app provides quick and easy dose calculation and management, from your phone!
6 NEWS British scientists find a gene that
acts as a ‘master switch’ for fat creation in the body. Very Dry Skin Cream can do wonders with all sorts of skin problems; we have ten tubes to giveaway.
8 FOOD NEWS Exclusive new recipes celebrate
Chocolate Week (10th-16th October). Chef Jun Tanaka’s fresh pickled wild Alaska Salmon recipe. Cookbook Food Britannia includes all sorts of national treasures.
10 LIVING: RISE OF THE MACHINES A look at the new breed of fancy and fabulous blood test meters.
14 LIVING: METER GALLERy An at a glance overview of the latest blood test systems.
KIT
SHORT SHARp SHIELD
It is estimated that one million needlestick injuries occur in the European Union each year, with more than 100,000 occurring each year in the UK alone. In light of this, BD has launched a 5mm AutoShield Safety Pen Needle.
“Needlestick injuries are the most frequent occupational hazard faced by healthcare workers, including those caring for people with diabetes” says Carol Philipps, Business Director, UK and Ireland, BD Medical - Diabetes Care. “The BD AutoShield Safety Pen Needle is the latest in our portfolio of innovative products designed to help protect healthcare workers and patients from needlestick injury and possible infection.”
The BD AutoShield Safety Pen Needle incorporates a shield that automatically locks after injection to help prevent accidental needlestick injuries. Available in 29Gx5mm needle size in the UK, they are the only safety-engineered pen needles compatible with all brands of pens for diabetes treatment. Shorter needles are proven to be as effective as longer needles for patients of all body types, as well as offering a less intimidating and less painful injection experience, while reducing the risk of intramuscular injections.
VaLUaBLe WaLLet
Diabetics know that they have to figure out their insulin does based on a few factors – their blood test at the time, what they are about to eat, and any exercise they may be due to do. Calculating the required dose is complicated by the fact that you may have different blood glucose targets and dose ratios for different times of day and need to allow for the effect of any
inSULin doSing adVice on aPP
insulin still active from previous doses. The RapidCalc app, provides quick and easy dose calculation and management, automatically selects the appropriate target and dose ratio for the time of day and factors in any insulin already ‘on board’. RapidCalc has blood glucose
profile charting and detailed statistics to help identify trends and refine your blood glucose control. http://gilport.com/rapidcalc
The HypoWallet from BBI healthcare is a portable, robust and easy to open bag containing a pack of 10 chewable orange GlucoTabs (4g carbs per tablet) with one 60ml shot of GlucoJuice (15g carbs per shot) as well as two 25g sachets of GlucoGel (10g carbs per shot). Also included is a treatment guide card, providing an at a glance guide to administering treatment (helpful for others to use if you cannot) and an ‘I have diabetes’ emergency contact card with emergency first aid instruction
The wallet can easily be taken on board an aeroplane as well, as the measured, fast acting carbohydrate is provided in small enough quantities, and looking to the Autumn, it’s an ideal piece of kit for kids to carry in their schoolbag when they go back to school. We have x10 to giveaway.
giVeaWaySend your name and
address in an email with subject line ‘Hypowallet’ to
NEWS
Very Dry Skin Cream is suitable for very dry skin conditions including eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and is also useful as a maintenance cream for dry cracked heels following successful treatment with Heel Balm. Available in pharmacies – including Boots -- Very Dry Skin Cream is also available as ‘Skin Balm’ on prescription the PIP Code for which is 3558392. We have x10 100g tubes of Very Dry Skin Cream to giveaway.
VITAMIN D REDuCES DEATH RATE
British scientists have found that a gene called KLF14 acts as a “master switch” that controls other genes found in body fat-genes that are major factors in such conditions as type 2 diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol levels, and levels of glucose and insulin. The finding, by researchers at King’s College London and Oxford University, could lead to ‘treatments for a range of metabolic disorders by targeting the gene.The research found the gene’s role as a master regulator of fat cell genes makes it a more significant factor in metabolic diseases than previously thought.
The British research team looked at more than 20,000 genes from fat samples taken from two separate groups of volunteers. The first group was 800 British female twins, and the second was 600 Icelanders. The scientists found that KLF14 directly affected the levels of other genes found in fat, revealing its role as the “master switch” that controls the actions of those genes.
Those genes, in turn, affect several metabolic conditions associated with type 2 diabetes, including body mass index, blood glucose and insulin levels, and being overweight. The next step is to look for ways to manipulate KLF14 so that its signals to other genes do not create metabolic disorders.
The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics.
‘MASTER SWITCH’ GENE FOR FAT
The recent E.coli crisis in Germany and France was a reminder to us all to remember to wash all f ru i ts and v e g e t a b l e s before eating them. Earth F r i e n d l y
Products’ Fruit and Vegetable Wash helps remove pesticides, chemicals, heavy metals, dirt, wax and bacteria from the surfaces of fruits and vegetables without depositing other harmful chemicals or adversely affecting taste.
It is a gentle yet effective way of removing organic residue from fruits and vegetables before eating/cooking. Washing with water alone, will not remove wax that is used as a waterproof medium to apply agricultural chemicals. Also useful for cleaning chopping boards, and other surfaces before and after preparing fresh produce.
Matthew Clark, of Natural Eco Trading Ltd says, “Whether your fruit and vegetables are organically grown or not, it is always advisable to clean them very thoroughly before consuming. Most people think that rinsing in water is enough but our Fruit and Vegetable wash allows you to go one step further while not affecting the taste of the product.”
WASH AND GO
giVeaWaySend your name and
address in an email with subject line ‘dry skin’ to
NEWS SPONSORED BY
Research from Aviva examining GPs’ views on medical issues, patient care and reform has revealed concern about the lack of responsibility patients take for their own health.
Aviva’s bi-annual Health of the Nation study revealed that GPs spend nearly three quarters of their time (74%) with patients. However, one in four (23%) say that only around a quarter of this time is spent dealing with medical issues that require a GP’s attention. Most GPs (93%) say that they spend up to a quarter of their time dealing with medical issues that a practice nurse could address. 88% of GPs say that a similar amount of time is spent dealing with minor medical issues that don’t even need to be seen by a GP or nurse.
TAKE MORE CARE OF yOuRSELFMoreover, Aviva’s research reveals
that nearly half of GPs (48%) feel that a significant amount of their time is spent dealing with patients who do not look after themselves. Over three quarters (78%) are concerned that their patients have unrealistic expectations in relation to their own health and the support available from their GP.
The top things that GPs feel would improve patients’ experience of the health service are:• Longer appointments (76%)• Faster diagnostic services (63%)• Shorter waiting lists (48%)• Improvements in the quality of clinical
care (45%)Nearly half (46%) of GPs believe that
better health education (for individuals and employers) will improve the individual’s experience of the health service.
Aviva’s Health of the Nation research reveals that nearly eight in ten (79%) GPs believe that they don’t have enough time to spend with their patients. Worryingly over half (56%) feel that taking part in commissioning of NHS services will shift their focus from patient care onto administration. Similarly, 48% feel that they will find it harder to devote time to their patients.
The bi-annual study canvassed the views of over 200 GPs on issues relating to their working practice and patient care. www.aviva.co.uk/healthofthenation
@desangsue
Do you have a meter or insulin pens that you no longer use? We are lucky to have our supplies on the NHS – many diabetics in less developed counties have much less (if any) access to the kit we use. Now perfectly good meters or pens can be ‘recycled’ by being sent to an organization in the UK that forwards
it on to its associated hospitals around the world where your surplus is put to good use.
Send any spare equipment to: Aid to Hospitals Worldwide, C/O NHS Transport Dept, Hospital Rd, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3NR. http://a2hw.web.officelive.com/default.aspx/
SEND SPARE KIT OVERSEAS
SPONSORED BY NEWS
FOODNEWS
Chef Jun Tanaka’s fresh pickled wild Alaska Salmon, perfect for al fresco dining. Simply scatter finely peeled cucumber, sliced shallot rings and capers onto diced salmon, before drizzling over your pre-prepared pickling liquid. Leave to cool and finish with a sprinkle of sliced radish and coriander for garnishing. Serves 4: 400g skinned wild Alaska salmon, 50g capers, 300ml white wine vinegar, 60g sugar, 100ml extra virgin olive oil, ¼ cucumber, 1 banana
British food has not traditionally been regarded as one of the world’s great cuisines, and yet Stilton cheese, Scottish raspberries, Goosnargh duck and Welsh lamb are internationally renowned and celebrated. In Food Britannia, food journalist and photographer Andrew Webb travels the country to bring
together a treasury of regional dishes, traditional recipes, outstanding ingredients and heroic local producers. He investigates the history of saffron farming in the UK, tastes the first whisky to be produced in Wales for one hundred years, and tracks down the New Forest’s foremost expert on wild mushrooms.
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Food Britannia is a must for any foodie. Organised geographically, it is the ideal companion for anyone planning a culinary staycation in Great Britain.
Food Britannia is Published by Random House Books in hardback at £25
shallot, 4 radishes, ½ bunch coriander. Alaska salmon are wild, sustainable and is low in fat and a natural source of protein, vitamins, calcium and Omega 3 oils. For the full recipe and many more visit www.alaskaseafood.org.uk
A BIT OF A PICKLE
FOOD BRITANNIAExclusive new recipes by Mary Berry, Lorraine Pascale and Gregg Wallace to celebrate Chocolate Week (10th-16th October) created for Divine, the farmer-owned chocolate company. The UK chocolate market alone is worth approximately £3.76 billion a year (Mintel, 2010).
Well-known cook Mary Berry has created a Velvet Chocolate Torte for Divine, made with a splash of brandy and is decorated with strawberries and chocolate shavings. Presenter of BBC’s Baking Made Easy, Lorraine Pascale has created a Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake while MasterChef presenter and sweet-toothed king Gregg Wallace has created a Divine Cherry & Chocolate Cake containing a sponge base, moistened with a cherry and brandy mix topped with a dark chocolate ganache.
TORTE PROCESS
SPONSORED BY
TO HELP YOU MANAGE YOUR DIABETESIntroducing Bayer’s CONTOUR® USB, the first blood glucose meter with on-board GLUCOFACTS® DELUXE diabetes management software. Simply test your blood glucose, then plug CONTOUR® USB into your computer to easily analyse test results and trends, and gain the knowledge that can help you lower your HbA1c.
Get your unique CONTOUR® USB for
£19.99* + P&P
SAVE £5!
© 2011 Bayer plc. All rights reserved. Printed in UK. Bayer, the Bayer Cross, Contour, Glucofacts and simplewins™ are trademarks of Bayer.
Visit
bayercontourusb.co.uk/ad and type
USBDS155 into the promotional
code box*Find out more about how you could benefit from using Bayer’s ContoUr® USB at bayercontourusb.co.uk
* Normal RRP of £24.99. Buy before 30 September 2011.Not available in conjunction with any other offer.
USB
DS 08/11
AND get afree meter skin worth
£4.99
LIVING
Don’t look now, but blood testing is getting sexy. Soon everyone’s going to want to do it! Beyond just a few small improvement and similarly insignificant design amendments, there’s now a new breed of meters that mean that you get much more than a test result.
RiSe of the machineS
By Sue Marshall
LIVING
for those of us who blood test several times a day, our relationship with our blood test meter is much like that we have with our mobile phone (most of the UK has own
of those now). One you get used to having it, you can’t imagine life without it.
We’ve entered a new era where our meters plug into and mimic many of the other machines in our lives – they connect to computers, they have ‘menus’, a choice of buttons, and the newer ones have colour screens, show graphs and one even has a touch-screen and can be personalised with a photo of your choosing. Going beyond blood testing alone, the meters now not only store hundreds of results by can stack the data in such a way that can help you spot patterns in your control, thereby giving you the information to make better decisions about food choices and insulin dosing.
The meters are now so modern, they are being redefined as ‘systems’ – so much more than just a bit of blood testing kit, these are medical lifestyle accessories for the diabetes in your life.
a question of trustAs more of us get the gist of how to use the internet not only in our offices and homes but on our mobile phones, being disconnected from the internet is a matter of quite considerable stress. A faulty internet connection is a frustration quite beyond words. Once you’ve got used to blood testing, your life can be given a distinct ‘edge’ of you manage to leave home without your blood test kit. According to a survey undertaken by Desang, as many as 34% of us would swing past a pharmacist to pick up a cheap meter just to make sure we have one with us for the rest of the day.
That shows how much we have come to rely on our machines. And that’s true of our society of a whole. How many of us disbelieved in the idea that a common car could have satellite navigation – surely a little box could not give us
directions up and down the country? And yet, for those who now use sat nav, it’s a boon. No more need to hold a map in one hand and try to read unfamiliar road signs while still holding the wheel.
Trusting an aspect of your life to a machine is no longer the madness it used to be. With a blood testing system, it really is a life improvement system – with better control your day won’t be undermined by a nagging, thirst-inducing high blood sugar, or an annoyingly wobbly low one. Keep away from those extremes and you are fit for purpose and can get on with your life.
What’s so new?Among the innovations is the Glucomen LX Plus from Menarini Diagnostics, a blood test meter that can also test ketones. Our Meter Gallery in the next pages gives an overview of another five of the new machines, as well as a sixth that’s coming early next year. Each meter (or system) varies a little from the other, so one or more of the features might appeal to you, if you’re in the market for upgrading your meter. Among them is the Contour USB from Bayer, which can store 2000 results, has a neat little colour screen and clearly pugs into any computer USB port both to charge and to download. Out of the box, the meter is set at 3.9mmols/l (though this can be amended if necessary) and if a reading shows low more than once in a 5-day period, within defined 3-hour windows, then it will flash ‘low pattern’ and show the date/time/reading so that you can take action and make any suitable adjustments to diet or dose.
From Roche’s Accu-Chek stable there are
Above:The Insulinx meter from Abbott uses ZipWik tabs for easier, faster blood application and uptake.
Below:The Insulinx meter from Abbott uses strip technology that features [Sue to fill in later, Biddly biddly biddly boo yadder yadder yaddery yoo]
LIVING
In January of 2008, San Francisco-based product designer Emily Pilloton launched Project H Design, and subsequently published a book, Design Revolution. Both encourage designers to deliver life-improving humanitarian design products and systems. The book features more than 100 items -- from safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children to wheelchairs for rugged conditions. Each of which are revolutionary and make the case for design as a tool to solve some of the world’s biggest social problems, challenging designers to be ‘changemakers’ instead of ‘stuff creators’. One of the products featured in the book is the OneTouch blood glucose monitor, which fits in alongside feats of ingenuity from the developing world like the Paraguas Project -- a bottle shredding device that turns plastic bottles into long strands suitable for craft weavers to make into baskets.
Meanwhile in the UK, the GlucoMen LX Plus is another nifty and new little number that combines blood glucose testing with ketone testing, all in one meter (you use separate test strips for glucose and ketones).
Medtronic and Ford Motor Company have teamed up to develop a prototype device that will allow people with diabetes to ‘test at the wheel,’ monitoring their blood glucose levels as they drive. Using Bluetooth technology, the
system will connect readings from Medtronic’s continuous glucose monitor to Ford’s onboard communications system, called ‘Sync.’ Medtronic has become increasingly involved with remote diabetes monitoring capabilities via wireless devices. Ford’s interest in offering the diabetes monitoring capability is inspired by its belief that 78 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in mobile health apps.
Did you know?innovative meters – the Aviva Mobile has been around about a year and has taken a totally original ‘strip-free’ approach to testing, replacing little white strips with a reagent tape on a cassette. It’s truly ‘all in one’ – the finger pricker and tape being incorporated into the rest of the machine, there are no other bits and pieces to handle or carry about. Meanwhile the even newer Aviva Expert has a colour screen and on-board bolus advisor.
Both the Accu-Chek Aviva Expert and Abbott’s new Insulinx meter, the latest meter to join the company’s Freestyle range, are only available from Diabetes Specialist Nurses. This is due to the fact that they both need to be programmed by a professional. As they contain ‘onboard bolus advisors’, the meter requires that you plug in your personal details when it comes to both insulin sensitivity and carb-to-insulin ratios.
If you are not on a pump and these sound familiar to you, then you’re probably a good candidate for one of these new meters and it’s worth brining them up on your next appointment with your DSN. If not, then maybe you can try asking about insulin sensitivity and insulin-carb ratios. Ultimately, if you’ve got good control without these, then you needn’t worry about them at all. However, if you do know about them and think that any of these machines might help make your life with diabetes easier, then get talking!
See over for Meter Gallery.
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For those diabetics who are out and about a lot, and frequently logged in to a laptop (or for those who use computers a lot), Bayer’s new Contour USB Blood Glucose Monitor is a groovy little number that takes your blood sugar readings and can be put into a computer’s USB port meaning data can be immediately downloaded, viewed and analyzed. If you’re a king or queen of the spreadsheet, you’re going to love this. The fact that it plugs into a USB port means it also recharges, making the meter the smallest blood tester machine with a rechargeable battery (so long as you can plug it in you need never worry about replacement batteries again). The Contour USB meter contains two flash drives, Glucofacts and Contour USB. The Glucofacts drive is reserved for use by Glucofacts Deluxe, which works with Java software. www.bayercontourusb.co.uk
A groovy little number
the touch screen is icon-driven
The InsuLinx name reflects that the meter is about linking blood tests to insulin. Aimed at those who’re on insulin, you can add your own image into the phone as well as add various other personalized settings. It’s PC and Mac-compatible and comes with FreeStyle Auto-Assist software. The touch screen (yessiree, it’s touch-screen!) is icon-driven, so you press the relevant icon to get into that part of the set-up. There’s only one button, which acts as the home button, just like many a mobile phone these days. The meter does a host of other things to help you keep good all-round control, for example it features a bolus calculator. And if you input the insulin that you’ve given yourself, then little figure of a man shows up on the screen if you have any active insulin still in your system, so you don’t over do it with your next dose. http://www.abbottdiabetescare.co.uk
CONTOuR uSB
FREESTyLE INSuLINX
gaLLeRyMeter
Matching the food we eat to our insulin doses is partly a science, but it’s also an art. This blood testing system has an on-board ‘advisor’ to help you gauge the correct insulin dose based on your carbs, so you do need to know a little about carb-counting to use it. Test your blood glucose with this meter, enter your carbs and the meter will give you advice on your dose (bolus). In this way you can have greater confidence in how to use your blood glucose results to achieve the kind of blood test results you want to see, and avoid hypos in the process. With many other features such as an insulin bolus calculator, the colour screen is helpful in letting you see trends on an easy to access daily basis. www.accu-chek.co.uk
ACCu-CHEK AVIVA EXPERT
The colourscreen is helpful
LIVING
knocked sensor pots on the head
Anyone who blood tests is familiar with having to carry not only the meter itself, but a lancing device, lancets and a pot of sensors, but this machine has knocked sensor pots on the head! Aimed at frequent testers, mainly therefore insulin using diabetics, the meter makes testing a much more mobile experience (hence the name). There is no need to insert individual sensors when you need to do a test as the meter uses innovative and unique technology, whereby the blood glucose testing is done on a strip of reactive tape held on a cassette within the meter. Each removable cassette can handle 50 tests. If you test five times a day you could go from using five sensors a day to replacing just one cassette every five days. You can leave the house just carrying the machine – that’s it! www.accu-chek.co.uk/
The OneTouch VerioPro has a couple of really nifty features, like the fact that the strip port lights up when you put a new strip in. But as well as the simple design improvements such as this, one of the machine’s true qualities is how easy it is to use. Without having to press any buttons, the meter logs all your results but informs you when it discovers a pattern for either high or low readings, giving you the chance to recall your undertakings and adjust either insulin doses or carbs to prevent a repeat. As well as ease of use, the VerioPro can claim ‘unsurpassed accuracy’ when it comes to testing glucose levels in blood, judged by stringent international standards. www.OneTouchMeters.co.uk/DSG
ACCU-CHEK MOBILE
ONETOUCH VERIO PRO
PLEASE NOTE: The Accu-Chek Aviva Expert and the Abbott Freestyle Insulinx ire not available in pharmacies due to the fact that they need to be set up around your own needs – such as your insulin-to-carbohydrate ratios – best done at first with an expert to hand, so if you would like to know more about these blood test systems talk to your healthcare professional.
COMING SOON
Looking into next year, we can expect to see the arrival of the BG Star, a blood test meter that actually works with your iPhone. The BG (as in ‘blood glucose’) Star plugs into the bottom of your iPhone. You use this part to do your test, but all the results are stored in your phone and can be accessed via software, also on your phone. In glorious technicolour, you can review your readings while sitting on a train, or waiting for a friend in a café just by opening the app and scrolling through. Should be with us in January 2011.
can claim unsurpassed accuracy for testing
Passport✔
Sunglasses✔
Flip flops✔
InsulinBlood test stripsMonitorExtra syringes
Finger prickerGlucose tabletsSpare batteriesSpare infusion set
Got everything?
Mustn’t forget my diabetic kit…
My Desang Kitbag
Desang diabetes kitbags take the headache out of remembering all the bits of diabetic kit that you need to take with you, be it on a daily basis, a weekend break, business trip or a full on expedition. Just fill it with your kit and go.
For a full range of kitbags for every occasion, as well as a directory of diabetes product information (from blood test meters to insulin pumps and other equipment) go to
www.desang.net
Grab it, Pack it, Go.
Classic Roll up Slim
}}See our full range of kitbags online or call 0870 300 2063 for a brochure
Buying your first kit bag?Benefit from a 15% discount by quoting promo code mag11 when ordering online.
Already have a kit bag?Then you can benefit from a 20% discount on your next purchase. Just email us at [email protected] and ask for the code.
discount15%
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For members
Pen PackMaking living with diabetes easier