by Ed Bryant
The Roche Diagnostics AccuChek VoiceMate is the best talking blood glucose monitor available today. Its features make the VoiceMate the only monitor fully usable by a blind diabetic, without any sighted assistance at all. It represents a tremendous advance on its ancestors.
However, it is far from perfect. The passage of time has revealed features that need to be improved. Because it is our responsibility, those of us who use the VoiceMate, to bring its flaws to the manufacturer's attention, I have been in fairly regular contact with Roche, and I hoped to see improvement.
In June of 2003, I wrote a letter (published in Voice, Vol. 18, No 4, Fall 2003 Edition) to Dr. Martin Madaus, President of Roche Diagnostics. On July 28, his Vice President and General Manager, William Lister, responded.
Mr. Lister was cordial, but noncommittal. He acknowledged the VoiceMate's "not enough blood" problem. He stated "a next generation VoiceMate was being planned," but continued: "please understand we cannot commit to specific dates the new system will be on the market, or specific features that might be included." He then directed me to contact Ms. Deb Edgecombe, who he called: "our AccuChek VoiceMate system representative."
I was disappointed by his lack of specifics. Last October 1, I sent to Deb Edgecombe, whose official title is: "Associate Product Manager for the AccuChek Advantage" (which includes the AccuChek VoiceMate), my list of observations about the VoiceMate, and suggestions about what might be done to improve the meter and its talk box. I again pointed out how it sometimes failed to distinguish between "not enough blood on the test strip" and a low blood sugar reading. I pointed out how the machine's audio prompt ("beep") was too soft for some users, and I gave her some observations about the audiotape instruction cassette. Then I waited.
On October 5, Ms. Edgecombe responded, stating: "Thank you so much for your feedback, very valuable! I'll get back to you as we start to address these issues and report our progress to you. Also, I see you have some questions that I need to research, I'll get back to you ASAP."
But she didn't.
On February 27, 2004, I wrote: "Dear Deb, this concerns your response to me of October 5, 2003, in which you addressed questions I'd sent you (October 1) about the AccuChek VoiceMate talking glucose monitor. You said you would 'get back to me ASAP.' As of today, February 27, 2004, I have heard nothing from you. It has been almost 5 months. I would have thought Roche Diagnostics, and you, would have been able to come up with some answers by now?"
And on March 1, I had a response. After months of waiting, one would have hoped for some substantive answers, but no. The "not enough blood" problem, that Roche had acknowledged some time before?
" This problem will not be addressed with the current system of the AccuChek VoiceMate." To me, this suggests Roche Diagnostics might not plan to ever address this problem.
The problem of the too-quiet beep?"
" No, this cannot be adjusted with the AccuChek VoiceMate."
When I asked if the older "Advantage" test strips, still available at Wal-Mart, would work in the VoiceMate (as they do in the Advantage), she responded: "I'm checking."
When I asked about hooking the VoiceMate to a home computer, and how many blind users would like to do this--but need instructions to do so, on the audiocassette tape--she responded: "This is a great question! I'll find out more and let you know."
When I asked about using the control solution by allowing it to run over a finger and then placing the finger against the test strip, she responded: "I'm checking on this, and will let you know."
I asked her about the confusing differences between the meter and the instructions, in regard to the "low" range and the "high" range, and was told: "I'm checking on this; I'll let you know."
I was surprised, since she'd had my questions so long, that after almost five months she was just "checking." Perhaps Roche has no interest in doing any more than just "checking?"
My comments about the instructional tape received more positive responses--though they were not of the "Yes, we will do this" variety. Ms. Edgecombe "plans to address" my suggestion to include instructions on the Softclix lancing device on the tape, says she WILL add meter battery information to the tape, and when I suggested she have the tape tone-indexed, she responded: "Great suggestion! I will implement if possible."
On March 5, I telephoned Roche Diagnostics Customer service, and spoke to a specialist, who said the Advantage meter (an integral part of the VoiceMate) will display an "error message" if there is not enough blood on the strip. I note as this cue is already present, it should be extremely easy to alter the voice box's chip so as to read it. I remember Roche has been aware of this problem in the VoiceMate for some time, apparently has done nothing, and seems uninterested in resolving the problem. I hope I'm wrong.
My impression of this exchange was that they'd stuck my October letter in a file someplace, and only pulled it out when someone realized I might publish it. It doesn't show a great deal of consideration for the concerns of blind diabetics.