Friday, July 27, 2012

And now for the iBGStar!!!

Today I visited the lovely Mary and Andrew at Sanofi and collected the two iBGStar BGL meters for Issie and Tim!

Was lovely sitting down with both of them to check out this fantastic meter and the iBGStar App!

At this stage, according to the box for the meters I have received, the iBGStar:

"Can be used with or without an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, or iPod touch."

and is:

"MADE FOR: iPod Touch (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation), iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPhone."

And now that I am home the kids and I have had our first play around.

Initial impressions:

  • VERY easy to set up.
  • VERY easy to customise - my kids are both so different so the fact that this is not a "one size fits all" system is exactly what we need.
  • VERY cool - LOVE the different themes and the way they change according to the time of day. Everyone dealing with T1D hates having to do their BGL's several times a day, so Sanofi has done a great job in making a device and App like this fun to use - hopefully this will encourage the kids to do more tests!
  • the meter itself is tiny - so no need to carry around a separate bulky BGL meter.
  • love the ability to be able to charge both the meter AND the iPhone/iPod Touch through the one USB connection at the base of the meter - or you can charge the meter on it's own.
  • One problem that Tim picked up straight away - although this depends on the device you are using with the iBGStar - Tim has the latest version of the iPod Touch (4th Generation) - which has the headphone jack at the bottom (which I personally think is an Apple design flaw) - so if the iBGStar is attached to his iPod Touch it covers the headphone jack completely. Given that the iPod Touch is  more often than not used to play music through headphones this is definitely a negative for this model of iPod Touch. However, for other versions of the iPod Touch, and for the iPhone, headphone jacks are at the top of the device so this is not a problem.
  • We have been provided with a case for the iPod Touch/iBGStar - which neatly keeps the iBGStar in place - and this is a great idea, however - Tim won't use it because of the headphone issue. HOWEVER - since the kids are not allowed to listen to music on iPods or iPhones at school he will use the case for keeping it all safely together when he is using the iBGStar at school.
  • The sharing feature is great - although sharing is only via email (but there are always ways around this as any child of the 21st Century would quickly figure out).
  • A great big plus is the fact that the ENTIRE User Guide is right there in the App! How many times have you been out and done a BGL only to receive an error message and you have NO idea what that particular error code means! How many of you carry your BGL Meter User Guide in your kit with you? None, I suspect! This makes it easy - just tap the "info" button - then "Help" and the full User Guide is right there on your screen!
  • The data is clear and easy to read - if you're looking at the trends chart and you want to know the details of any of the "dots" on the chart - just tap on the dot and all the details for that reading are right there together with any notes you have made.
  • You can add BGLs manually if, for some reason, you have done them on another meter (say you forgot to charge the iBGStar and had to use your back-up meter).
Over the next few days I'll post more information about how we are going with these new meters, but for now, here are a few photos of some of the screens in the App - this is with the iBGStar attached to Issie's iPhone 3Gs.












I've only had these things in my hands for a couple hours and already I'm loving the iBGStar.

Can't wait to tell you more about it!


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