Dario Blood Glucose Meter Review

Diabetes, a condition where blood sugar levels are increased, is a disease that affects many people across the world. In fact, a recent study (2015) showed that nearly 50% of adults living in the U.S. have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Dario, a company made up of tech engineers, medical advisors and people from the diabetes community, are hoping to make diabetes sufferers’ lives a little easier to manage with their All-in-One Smart Glucose Meter.

The smart meter is a sleek and portable monitoring solution that features a lancing device, test strip cartridge holder, and a smart phone attachment. The device has no need for batteries, due to the smart phone attachment just needing to be plugged in to the headphone jack, can offer rapid blood glucose readings within 6 seconds of testing, and meets ISO standards of accuracy with just a tiny sample of blood.

For those of you looking to upgrade to the iPhone 7 – fear not. Dario are already prepping for the lack of a headphone jack on the recently updated iPhone, and will be releasing an Apple Lightning connector version soon.

Within the box you’ll receive the glucose meter and a small bag of 25 lancing devices. If you’re in the US, the test strips are available separately on a purchase plan, which comes in plans of 50 strips, 100 strips or 200 strips per month. For those of you in the UK there isn’t such a plan in place, but you may be able to get lancets and test strips on prescription from your local pharmacy. If a prescription isn’t ideal for you then a box of 50 strips can be purchased for £14.95 (excluding VAT) .

Whilst handling the device you’ll probably notice, as I did, that the caps at the ends which are covering both the lancet (orange) and the test strips holder (white) are very secure without being too difficult to remove. My only issue here is that the entire cap comes away from the device. It would have been a much better design, in my opinion, if the caps were on some sort of a hinge system.

The test strip cartridge holder contains 25 strips, and slots in to the device extremely easily upon removing the cartridge from its box. Once you’ve used up all of the strips, this cartridge can be thrown away and replaced with a new fully-stocked cartridge. It’s a little fiddly to remove each strip, but once a few have been removed it’s a little easier to remove the remaining strips.

The meter itself is located in the centre of the device. A simple flick of the orange slider will pop the meter out of the side, ready for it to be used with your smartphone.

Installation & Testing

Next step, in being able to use the device, is to download the Dario app from the AppStore. You can do this by searching “Dario”, or by scanning the QR code on the setup instructions.

Upon first use of the application you’ll be able to scroll through the quick start guide. Once you’ve gone through this you’ll be met with the home screen.

In the centre of the application you’ll be prompted to insert the smart meter and record your BG level. Within the app itself you can record additional information such as carbs, insulin, physical activity or any information that may prove useful when reviewing your readings.

Testing is actually incredibly simple. Upon inserting the smart reader in to your phone, you’ll be prompted to insert one of the test strips. You’ll then need to use the lancer to draw a small drop of blood (not much is needed on the Dario smart meter). Simply touch the drop of blood up against the edge of the test strip and the device will almost instantly display your results (it can take up to 6 seconds, which isn’t that long anyway).

After testing, your mmol/L will be displayed on screen, and once enough readings have been taken an average will be displayed at the bottom of the home screen. The process as a whole is pretty painless, and offers an easy and efficient way of monitoring your blood glucose levels throughout the day. With the ability to log additional information, as well as your mmol/L. The Dario is an extremely useful and portable device for anyone suffering with diabetes.

One other feature is that the app / device has the ability to display an estimated A1C (average blood glucose). The A1C feature on the app requires at least 25 blood glucose results.

If you’re a diabetes sufferer then I’d highly recommend checking out the Dario Smart Meter. It retails for around £15, and with the possibility of getting a prescription for extra test strips and lancers (here in the UK), it’s definitely worth taking a closer look.

Original Article