... test, don't guess!

Okay, technically, the folks over at dLife say that, but it has been known to come out of my mouth a time or two, also.

Since blood glucose testing is so important for people with diabetes, I love it when I hear about new forms of testing technology. For years, us parents of kids with type 1 have been wanting a cell phone that also acts as a glucose monitor. This would cut down on the amount of "stuff" our kids have to tote around and would give us the comfort of knowing that our kids were testing when away from home. Well, that wish is now a reality. Enter the GlucoPhone!

I ordered a new GlucoPhone (GP as I will refer to it henceforth) last week for my daughter. By Friday it had arrived and was waiting for me on the kitchen counter when I got home from work!

Currently Verizon is the only carrier to work with the GP. Hopefully this will change soon, so that it is more accessible to others who use different carriers. In the box we received a brand spanking new Verizon VX5200 cell phone. This phone is far superior to my daughter's current, pay-as-you-go Virgin Mobile phone. We also received a second box that contained the "GlucoPack," the part of the device that attaches to the VX5200 and incorporates the blood glucose testing aspect. We also received a lancing device and 25 free test strips (I ordered an additional 50 strips as well). After taking the phone to a Verizon Wireless store to be activated, I spent all of 5 minutes setting up our online account at GP's website. Then I started playing!!! So here is how it works.


First, you must initialize the GP program on your phone and select "Check Blood Glucose". The screen then prompts you to insert a strip and apply blood to the strip. The prompt is displayed but can also be heard over the speakerphone, which is wonderful for smaller kids who maybe can't read well just yet. (Note: the sound can be turned off, for those requiring a more discrete testing environment.) The test strips look similar to most and require a 3 μl blood sample size, which is rather large compared to her Freestyle Flash meter (.3 μl ). But it gets the job done, right!?!?! Yes, yes it does. I poked myself while I was playing around, since my daughter was out and about. My first reading came out at 110 (the test using our Precision Xtra meter said 105 from the same drop of blood -- so overall it was pretty accurate).

When setting up your account online you can specify a cell number to use to send each test result as a text message. So once you receive the test result, you press the soft key for "send" and you get a message saying "sending the result". Once the result is sent you see a confirmation screen that actually thanks you for testing (which I absolutely love!) and says, "Your result has been sent successfully. Check your records at www.glucophone.net".

Within a second of seeing this confirmation screen on the GP, I received the text message on my cell phone that said, "Samantha's Blood Glucose is at 110 mg/dl."




WOW!!! It was virtually instantaneous! I am quite pleased with the GlucoPhone so far and hopefully it will continue to live up to these standards.