FDA approves Bayer Diabetes Care's Contour USB blood glucose meter

NEW YORK It’s not wireless, but that doesn’t necessarily matter — the significance of a product like this is in its enhanced track and chart functionalities.

First, there are no more points of differentiation, not really, in blood glucose meters in the mind of the consumer. There are no more alternate sites once you’ve gotten a meter approved for alternate site testing. Sure, maybe you can take the amount of blood required for a measurement down another hundredth of a microliter or so. Or maybe you can reduce the time between supplying your meter with a sample and actual test result by a second or so. But in either case, will the end-consumer really notice?

So that means future points of differentiation among blood glucose meters need to improve the ability to effectively use testing datapoints in the management of diabetes. And because Type 1 diabetics are likelier to track and chart their blood glucose readings more so than Type 2 diabetics (which incidentally is by far the larger market), that means making the tracking and charting easier. What’s easier than plugging your meter into the side of your computer for automatic data transfer in today’s wired world?

Plugging your meter into the side of your doctor’s computer. That’s the other advantage to a meter equipped with a UBS data port, the data’s easily portable. And that’s a POD that not even a wireless meter can match today, and won’t be able to match until the day electronic medical records accessed by doctors becomes commonplace.