by Ed Bryant
Last issue, Voice Vol. 20, No. 3, I wrote about the SensoCard Plus, the new talking blood glucose monitor from England. Here’s an update.
The SensoCard Plus, from England's CDX, Ltd., is a tiny, one-piece unit, much smaller than any other talking meter (and many that don’t) available today. Simple and pocketable, it features, along with its synthesized voice, a large screen display, and test strip coding by means of a "code card" rather than visual cues. One large, easy-to-find button controls the unit. The meter’s memory holds 400 tests, along with time and date, and it provides 7-, 14-, and 28-day averages. Results are downloadable to your PC.
The strip uses capillary action, and requires a 0.5 microliter sample. Insert the flat end into the meter; that turns the machine on. Lance, and bring the tip of the protruding test strip against the drop of blood. You can touch the strip. In five seconds, after five beeps, you should have your result.
Instructions come in 18-point large print and audiocassette, and a prototype strip guide, to make sampling easier, is being developed. Although a blind diabetic with neuropathy in the hands might find the meter’s “code card” system a bit difficult (some compromises had to be made in the interest of small size), the SensoCard can be “keyed” manually as well.
And it is truly tiny. The SensoCard Plus, complete, is 2-1/8 inches wide, 3-1/3 inches tall, and, at its thickest, 1-1/2 inch deep. The “voice box” and speaker are permanently in there, too.
This meter has already passed the UK's tough testing and licensing hurdles. CDX sent it to the the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 1. (NOTE: FDA approval is necessary before the SensoCard Plus can be sold in the United States.) As the meter incorporates no revolutionary new technologies, and as the assembling factory (located in Hungary) has built meters before, no issues are anticipated. CDX is optimistic; they hope US approval comes before the end of 2005. It might.
What will it cost? This question will only be answerable once there is a US distributor for the product. How much will the distributor add to the low UK price, to bring the meter into the United States? We don't know yet.
I'll have more to report, shortly, and Voice of the Diabetic will keep you posted, or you may contact CDX yourself: Cunningham Diagnostics Limited, Stanfield Business Centre, Sunderland, SR2 8BL, England; telephone: 01144-191564-2036; fax: 01144-191564-2037; email: [email protected]; Web site: www.cdx.uk.com.