Contour Next

I have been using a blood glucose meter (gluco-meter) for the last 8/9 years. But in this period I have used only one gluco-meter. It's a good old Accu-Chek Active from Roche. Very simple to operate or change lancet. The strips or lancets are easy to procure. And most importantly it has been giving me flawless service for the last close to a decade. Roche also has a great free service, whereby, if you are suspicious of the unit's accuracy you can inform them. They will send a technician who will calibrate the machine and check things and certify it to be accurate. I used this service once. In one word, I am fairly happy with my gluco-meter that is 8/9 years old now. Clearly it is very robust. Like those good old Nokias of 2000.

So when my friend, a senior medical consultant from Wales, brought another gluco-meter (Bayer's Contour Next) for me I wasn't too sure if I wanted to switch over. But out of curiosity and also a sense of loyalty mixed with gratitude for my friend I thought I would give it an honest try. Also, earlier someone had brought me two gluco-meters from Canada and I used none of them out of a fear for new gadgets and subsequently lost them. So I had a hidden guilt feeling about it. I wanted not to go through that guilt feeling once again.

Let me jot down my thoughts on setting the Contour Next unit up and using it. 

The gluco-meter with the test strip ready for blood

The first thing that strikes you about the unit is its cute look and feel. Triangular in shape, it is much smaller than my Mac's Magic Mouse. One can easily fit it in the palm of a boy. In fact it is so small that I am worried I might lose it in our house. It is a shiny black unit as opposed to Accu-Chek's matt dull blue.

With my new developed disgust for official "how to" literature I did not even try to look it up but went straight to google. To my utter surprise I found Bayer has a nice official "how to" video on its site (this is the first time I am using anything made by Bayer other their now discontinued but a brilliant product called Baygon Bait). It is an animation video with verbal instructions. But it is a decent enough video, in the sense you can set up the unit by just watching the video once or twice. I had a little trouble opening the tip of the lancing device to insert the lancet. But then worked it out through a few trial and error attempts. It is simple - you just pull the top end of it with a little force :-)

The lancet device

The lancing device is also very smart and handy. It has a smart parabolic banana like shape. As opposed to my pen-shaped Accu-Chek. The force and depth with which the lancet punctures your skin is very fast and deep. I had set it at the highest level. But after the first puncture I realised I must tone it down a little. Perhaps two notches less. Unless one has a very thick rough skin one does not need it at that high speed, particularly with the lancet being new. Setting the lancet ready for a strike is simple - you pull the bottom out till it clicks. The Accu-Chek pen has a dot pen like lever at the back that you just press in. That's definitely simpler.

The video said, one of the features of the unit is it gives you a second chance to put in more blood if at first attempt the total amount of blood is not sufficient. It flashes the message and gives you about 30 seconds to put in more blood. That's a fantastic feature to have. On Accu-Chek if the blood is not enough you have to discard the strip and start afresh.

Lancets

But before taking all that blood, I set up the unit first. It was quite a breeze and intuitive. You select the language. You set the time. You set the reference range - that is, if your reading is found on either side of this range the unit will tell you so. And you are ready. There are just three buttons to grapple with. Up scroll. Down scroll. And OK. To switch the unit on you hold the OK button for a few seconds. To shut it off you just leave it. It auto switches off.

At the time of the actual test I realised this unit requires much less blood than my Accu-Chek. It has a sip up kind of technology on the test strip whereby it sucks the blood up. On the Accu-Chek you need to smear a relatively larger area with blood. Also the position of that place on the strip is such that some blood gets smeared on the Accu-Chek unit itself and stays as a permanent brown spot. No chance of such mess here. The active part of the test strip that sucks the blood is a very small vertical line at the bottom of the strip. 

The most convenient feature of this unit is the log. Your data is stored with date, time and a short note like when the blood was taken (fasting, post lunch etc). I think you can even mention the number of hours between lunch and the test. Since I would never test beyond or before 2 hours I didn't bother to key that in.

And these data is all written on the screen in clearly understood, simple English. No sign language or codes. After that you can even back up the data on your PC. Mark it - only PC. Not Mac :-( . So I need to carry it to work to back up the data. I am not sure how many tests the unit can remember. 

As far as I can see there are a few small problems with this unit. But none of them is serious enough to not consider this unit. The biggest issue for India is it shows the value in millimole per litre. In India we are used to checking our blood glucose level in mg/dl. But then if google is your friend that is not an issue at all. In no time you can find a converter like this. The other problem is this unit comes with a soft nylon pouch. My Accu-Chek came with a hard plastic case. It is very travel friendly. You can rest assured that your electronic gadget will not be crushed. In a soft nylon pouch you have to be careful.

The smart soft package

Another point, if I really have to find out issues, is that this unit needs two NiCad batteries. Since it costs Rs 40 each, I don't think that's an issue.

The main issue for me will be to find out a source for reasonably priced test strips and lancets here in Calcutta. The new box came with a starter kit of sorts with a small number of strips and lancets. But getting the supply on a regular basis in India might be a problem. Because Bayer has officially still not launched it in India. And the problem is that each different model uses a different type of strip. So that Bayer can continue to make more money out of you on a sustained basis :-)