New Wireless Device Improves Blood Glucose Monitoring

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People with diabetes need to keep their blood sugar (glucose) as near to normal as possible. Keeping blood glucose in your target range can help prevent or delay the start of diabetes complications such as nerve, eye, kidney, and blood vessel damage.

Blood glucose monitoring is the main tool available for checking your diabetes control. This check tells you your blood glucose level at any one time.

It is vital to keep a log of your results. When you bring this record to your health care provider, you have a good picture of your body's response to your diabetes care plan.

This record can be an integral part of diabetes management as it provides information about how your treatment plan is working.

Blood glucose checks let you see what works and what doesn't. This allows you and your doctor, dietitian, or nurse educator to make needed changes.

• Regular blood glucose testing helps a person with diabetes determine how effectively they are managing their diet, exercise and medication (if necessary). Maintaining a blood glucose level as close to target range as possible helps to delay or prevent complications of diabetes.

Blood glucose meters are small computerized machines that "read" your blood glucose. In all types of meters, your blood glucose level shows up as a number on a screen (like that on your pocket calculator).

• More than two million Canadians have diabetes. By 2010, this number is expected to rise to three million.

• Approximately 10 per cent of people with diabetes have Type 1 diabetes. However, the number of people with Type 2 diabetes is increasing.

There is now a way to increase the accuracy and convenience of your record keeping. Medtronic, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare, Diabetes Care, a business unit of Bayer Inc. and a member of the Bayer Group, have announced the availability in Canada of the Contour Link blood glucose meter.

The new Contour Link meter wirelessly sends blood glucose test results to compatible Medtronic MiniMed Paradigm insulin pumps, and the Guardian Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System.

In a telephone interview with this citizen journalist, Russ Newsome, Country Division Head, Bayer HealthCare, Diabetes Care, said, “Contour Link saves time and makes diabetes management easier. Contour Link applies radio frequency technology to the home providing wireless transmission of results and simplifying the process for both doctor and patient.”

“The person with diabetes gets quicker and more accurate information thus enabling him or her to dial up or dial down the insulin pump rate.”

“The wireless transmission eliminates the risks of errors that may be made through manual entry of data and allows the insulin pump to easily calculate the complex diabetes math needed for bolus dosing.”

Blood glucose values serve to calibrate the MiniMed Paradigm Real-Time and Guardian Real-Time systems. These CGM systems allow for continuous measurement of the patient’s glucose levels that can identify trends and alert the patient to dangerous highs and lows.

The Contour Link meter also features the patented No-Coding technology, an innovation that does not require the user to manually enter a code with each new box of test strips, eliminating potential inaccuracies due to miscoding errors.

The development of software to capture results is one development possibility that Newsome sees this present application of wireless technology to home health care offering.

Contour Link is compatible with the insulin pumps of the Medtronic MiniMed Paradigm series 512/712, 515/715, 522 and 722, and the Guardian Real-Time System.