I have a meeting with a DSN tomorrow (Diabetes Specialist Nurse). A few months back they offered me a trial of the Accu-Chek Expert handset, and while that didn't quite work out, they do now have a few from the manufacturer that they are able to let people have.
From what I've been told the Expert is essentially the same as the 'brain' of the Roche insulin pumps. More than just a BG meter it allows you to input your carbs, level of activity and insulin ratios and will offer a suggested insulin dose based on the information you provide, plus an allowance for level of activity, stress etc.
It all sounds very promising and I'll be interested to see how fiddly it is to use in practice.
For the last 5 months or so I've been logging all of this information in the excellent DiabetesDiary for iPod/iPhone. It has really helped me spot patterns and thanks to its incredibly easy data entry and some nifty data views (monthly and 7 day graphs, monthly average and 7 day average graphs, min max and mean for any time of day flag etc) the Expert handset now has quite a lot to live up to in terms of usabillity and ease of use.
I'll let you know how I'm getting on when I've had a few days to play with it.
Update: Accu-Chek Expert Review - one month in
oh god. I have this meter that goes to my pump and i HATE it. It's like a brick, innacurate as hell and doesn't work half the damn time.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam. Yes it's hard to tell how data entry will work looking at pics of the the handset online. And how on earth I'll set up my complex ratio tweaks remains to be seen (not only different at different times of the day, but different again for gyms days... weekends... it's more art than science really!). Hsving sdaid that I've always had Roche meters in the past and been pleased with them, so I'll be interested to see.
ReplyDeleteI have this, and I dislike it! I will get around to doing a review of it at some point. It's bulky, and if not used regularly it's sort of hard to take in all the information it gives you.
ReplyDeleteI was also given it by my DSN. They cost £80 so I am grateful to have it, but still - I dislike it.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteWow the meter sounds great and certainly looks very impressive with its colour screen.
Did you find it complicated to set up and use ?
Great Blog.
Andrew Borrett
www.mypump.co.uk
www.mypumpblog.com
Initial setup is really easy with a step-by-step wizard. Took me a good 2 months of tweaking though to get it set up properly as you kinda need to get your head around the data it needs to give effective advice, which is not always quite what you'd expect.
ReplyDelete