Portable blood glucose monitors

Blood glucose monitors (BGMs) are used to test the blood glucose levels of diabetic patients, both in the home and in hospitals. In the home, BGMs are used by patients who monitor their own blood glucose levels. In hospitals, BGMs are often used to monitor patients undergoing intensive insulin therapy. In this Update Evaluation, we present our findings for 10 newly tested units and compare those units with 17 others we've evaluated over the years (most recently in our September-October 1997 issue). Because more and more BGMs are designed to meet the specific--and increasingly diverging--needs of either home users or hospital users, we now rate BGMs for only one use or the other. (In previous studies, we rated each model for both applications.) For home/individual use, the main selection factors are human-use issues such as whether the unit detects an inadequate volume of blood sample (thereby avoiding inaccurate test results) and how easily a reading is obtained. For hospital/facility use, perhaps the most crucial feature is a data management system to document quality control and patient testing information. All the units included in this evaluation exhibit adequate performance. But we found some more desirable for their marketed applications than others. We rated five of the units Preferred, another 13 Acceptable, and the remaining nine Not Recommended.