In the world of diabetes, we are constantly being bombarded with new products and the advertising and marketing that comes along with it. One of the strengths of the CIM community is bringing together people who have been test drivers for almost everything that’s out there to try. Be it a new meter, the latest pump technology, or an app to help make life with Type 1 just a little bit easier, someone out there has tried it and can tell you about it. When you meet someone who is also living the day-in-day-out of Type 1, their opinions mean something. They get it.

One thing that is missing in the Type 1 space in Canada is a place to go to get the low down on something new that’s out there. Enter – the CIM Test-Drive Team! You’ll start hearing more from our community over the coming year about the tools they tried and put to the test.

To kick things off, we decided to review the new OneTouch Verio Flex meter synced with the OneTouch Reveal app. Each member of the Test Drive Team received a free meter and 100 strips from OneTouch and was asked to use the meter until their strips ran out, and provide us their thoughts.

Below we’ve compiled the Team’s highlights and recommendations. Here’s what they thought.

Note: OneTouch is one of Connected in Motion’s 2017 Summit Sponsors. Our work with the team at OneTouch allows us to bring CIM programming to life. Although CIM receives sponsorship support, product reviewers do not receive any compensation outside of a free meter and strips.  

We asked our review team to provide us their feedback specifically related to the physical design and usability of the meter as well as the functionality of the OneTouch Reveal app. We wanted to know – was it easy to hold? Did they like how it looked? Did the OneTouch Reveal app decrease diabetes burden? Were there any features that made them go “Oh wow! They really thought about that!”. We know that there are so many factors that go into making a diabetes product great (or not so great), but at the end of the day, we need to be able to use it to comment. Let’s see what they had to say.

The Verio Flex uses something called ColourSure indicators. As a general overview, the ColourSure indicators:

• Correlate with your custom high (red), in range (green), and low (blue) alerts (that you set yourself)

The team thought that this was interesting and, just like the white colour of the meter, a nice stray away from the red, yellow, green we are used to seeing in the diabetes world to indicate highs and lows.

The Test Drive Team liked the readability of the screen. Several of the team mentioned that the larger number size and arrow markers are especially helpful for anyone who struggles to see the usual tiny font common on many of meters. This would be an especially helpful feature for seniors and children.

Individuals liked that by just glancing at the app, they could see their time spent in range. The OneTouch Verio Flex meter allows you to set your high and low ranges. As patterns begin to emerge, you can also see trends in the app – a useful tool for making small changes to your daily routine. For example, by being able to see that your BGs are rising every day mid-afternoon will allow you to make changes to basal rates, bolus ratios, or maybe just what you’re eating for lunch.

Several features were discussed by the Test Drive Team that, overall, helped the meter decrease the burden of testing. These features included:

• Settings that were easy to configure
• Data that was automatically uploaded to the users smartphone – either Apple or Android
• Auto-shutoff of the meter. Once the strip was removed, the meter turned off right away wasting less battery life
• Small blood sample size

The OneTouch Verio Flex meter has a unique feature that almost all of our Test Drive Team loved: It comes in a case that bundles together the meter, strips, and lancing device into one, discreet unit.

Discreet is key here. The Team loved that it was easier to carry around than many meters because of its slim design – ladies, there is no longer a need to rummage through your purse to find that bottle of test strips that have escaped! Gentlemen, think of all of the places you can stash your meter when it comes in one piece – pants pocket, shirt pocket… okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but we still love the design. And this is one of the first meters we’ve seen that isn’t the meter-standard black. Its white colour stands out in a good way. It’s clean, crisp looking, and something different.

The lancing device, the Delica, was new to many of our product reviewers and was well received. The Test Drive Team mentioned across the board that it hurt less than other lancing devices (or pokers, in the typical T1 lingo) they had used.

We asked the Test Drive Team: “If you had the chance to sit down with a development team to influence one piece of the OneTouch Verio Flex meter or OneTouch Reveal app, what would your recommendations be.” We’ve included some of our favourites below.

One thing that many users, especially those who had used the previous version of the OneTouch Verio meter missed, was the meter light. Many members of the Test Drive Team mentioned that a light on the meter – both to illuminate the strip and the meter screen itself would be a massive asset.

The OneTouch Verio Flex meter, as mentioned above, comes with a neat bundling option. One of the challenges that some of the product reviewers mentioned was that the bundle itself is not fastened to the case. For some users, this provided a challenge as the meter would fall out of the case when opened. For others, especially those who forego using the case, they quite liked the feature. Something to keep in mind when you put this meter to use!