Hi Nicky I’m pretty good, in a world full of confusion and doubt I have been convinced or convinced myself that the contour is the best. What is a bit confusing the reports that I quote say that the other Ascensia products using exactly the same strip are not quite so good. I was tempted to get the one that looks like a memory stick but it came up less well in the various studies.
Hope the verdict looks good
What’s bewildering to me is the variability in costs, the insurance coverage, or the absence of coverage of test strips. If anything, one would think that if we are vigilant, testing as necessary and keeping good BG, WNL, we ought to be 1. commended for our good efforts and 2. not be discouraged or disallowed from “testing too frequently”. Quite some time ago, I was told by one endo, “I don’t want you testing so often” - in reference to more frequently than once daily. SMH. Needlessly to say, I’ve moved onto doctors who support my desire to maintain good health.
Our healthcare system is truly broken. It appears to reward disease and illness management rather than prevention. Insurance will cover amputation, dialysis, which are all possible complications of poorly managed diabetes. Yet, why don’t they focus more on proper management of diabetes? In the end, preventive costs and programs will cost FAR less than hospitalization and procedures.
I hear you… and I’m going to need a keyboard to respond…
That reminds me of this conversation:
It is my opinion that many of the reviews are not taking into account the error factor in the meters. Some (many? most? ??) will treat the numbers as a real number. I think we all get used to that. We use a meter and it says 115 and so we think the BG is 115. In reality the meter should probably say the BG is somewhere between 112 and 118. [consumers would hate that. nobody would buy that meter. other than the engineering majors for whom it likely would make perfect sense.] And I am not talking about the FDA allowed 5% or 10 points or 15% or whatever the FDA allows. This is the reality that measurements are not exact.
So. Long winded.
Point being.
My opinion is that the vast majority of the technology is in the strip. The meter either works or doesn’t work. I do not believe that any one meter is any more accurate than any other meter.
I do believe that certain strip technologies are inherently better than other strip technologies which result in more precise and more accurate readings. I also believe the manufacturing process for the strips is different which also results in differing precision and accuracy for different strips.
But a review article testing three meters all with the same strip will have slightly varying numbers based on the inherent range but rather than take that into account will simply rank the three meters. Even though they are actually all the same if they use the same strip.
Strictly my opinion.
I read a couple reviews. I listened to a few people here of whom I trust their opinions. I got three of the Contour Next One meters. Never gave it another thought.
Too much else to deal with.
I was trying to remember the source, but I once read an article about how our “2-4 times a day” came to be. I need to find the article. Between that article and a research study on sensor technology, there was talk about the “burden” of finger sticks on diabetics and their overall reluctance to perform them. Diabetics couldn’t be bothered to test more than once or twice a day. Because it hurt… 
I’d like to meet the diabetics interviewed for this. I’m not doing a good job of this summary, but I’m going to find the article and put it in here. It was interesting to think of all these diabetics sitting around explaining they’d like to test just once, maybe twice a day, to save their fingertips.
Interesting… and maybe not related… but that’s what Medtronic is pretty much saying now. Let’s not focus on our meter numbers. We don’t need to look at those so much. I have my suspicions about medical professionals who tell me not to test or to disregard what I see. (In Medtronic’s case, I think it’s a simple case of gaslighting… but back to your comment…)
Sad how hard it is to find them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told my doctor up front: “I’m not looking for a surgery. I’m not looking for medicine. I’m looking for a solution.” But they don’t have that kind of time. They write up some prescriptions, and I drop them in the trash as I walk out the door.
Because making people well takes more commitment and more time. Better communication and better organization. More cooperation. I wish it were a simple matter of money… maybe, in a perfect world, that could be remedied. But all of that other stuff takes a lot of work…
It certainly does feel that way…
I got one. I like it very, very much. And then I have my Relion… which I also like very much. And if my endo ever gets back to me, and I can see how they all tested, I could put it all to rest. They’re often very close, the Relion and Contour, but there’s definitely a pattern, and the Contour nearly always reads higher. Monday. My endo is back on Monday.
This reluctance to finger prick story comes up a lot and when Libre produced the no calibration model their shares bounded up on the NYSE and Dexcom’s fell by 15%, investors thought this was a big win for Libre.
I used an average 12 fingersticks a day before I went CGM but I felt a bit guilty if I criticised people who complained about this burden. I remember the 70’s before the original BM sticks were invented by Boehringer Mannheim and all we could do was pee in a test tube and see if it went purple. I was always very grateful that I had them before I went on insulin.
Hi Thomas a bit pushed for time so the following is from memory as the articles in question are quite long and complicated. the 2 or 3 articles were consistent in ranking the original Contour Next above its brothers.
The story as I understand it is that because the meters are testing the whole blood rather than just the plasma that the Clinic tests the manufacturers have to come up with an algorithm that works out how this will affect the result. It is part strip performance part algorithm.
A possible reason for different performance is that the smaller meters would have different components to get into less space and would require a different algorithm to read those components. Just speculation but would explain it.
Links to the articles are on my website bgonmywatch.com. Article “Calibration requires accurate Blood Glucose Meters”
I also wear the Libre and would be a liar if I said I didn’t love the low maintenance aspect of it but not more than I loved Dexcom’s accuracy.
I have been in a lull, but I usually test approximately 15-25ish times a day (plus or plus 10) 
I ALSO wear the Guardian. That’s heavy duty armor… all those numbers. Honestly though, I didn’t start testing this much until I really started WANTING to know where I was and found that every time I DID test, it was not particularly close to what my CGM was reading.
I hear this a lot… from people who remember back to things I’ve never experienced. So then I ask you… if your current CGM is fairly inaccurate and difficult to calibrate, does having come from peeing in tubes mean you are willing to overlook current technology’s shortcomings? I can’t overlook, but I also don’t have that history. I wasn’t diagnosed until 2004.
I used to pee in the test tubes. Here is a perspective in allegory that I wrote last year:
the-view-on-another-planet
Did you note this on medtronic website ?
Based on clinical study data in pivotal trial. Individual results may vary.
When I started with the medtronic sof-sensor, I felt much the same way. The sensors didn’t improve during the time i used them, but i did have more success adapting some of my thinking and behaviors to get the most benefit from them.
Starting CGMS AND having difficulties was what led me to finding support in the online communities, and it was much better than my medical team.
I found out from a co-worker, rather than endo that dexcom existed as an alternative.
just saw this! Yes, I’d say!
I’ve done this as well. I speak Guardian. I had to learn it to stop myself from feeding my transmitter, and possibly pump, to a vat of acid.
It’s how I stumbled in here… looking up info on the sensors, and in fact, I think yours was the first thing I read! Thanks for being smart and interesting and sounding like you know what you’re talking about… it made me want to hang around.
Okay and now I’m coming around, FINALLY, to update this with my lab draw meter comparison results… and then to listen to you all cry foul if anyone actually comes back through and reads it… I brought 3 meters, My Contour, my One Touch, and my TRUSTY OLD Relion from Walmart at only 17 cents a strip. I tested all three immediately after the tech collected my blood… and then immediately again 2 more times. Just because.
First test: 
Second test: 
Final test: 
And my LAB VALUE WAS… 77.
Relion WINS. Right??? And look at that consistency…
Absolutely. And I will test often when I plan to be bad, like eat a few slices of apple pie, or french fries followed by ice cream. 
My insurance was changed again, and for the first time, the Contour is one of the meters of choice. If I choose Contour Next One, the smallest, most compact one, does it use the same test strip as the Contour Next? The meter ratings/comparisons list the various versions of Contour Next, not specifically the Next One. For those of you who have used the Next One, are you generally satisfied with it? For reference, I’ve been using the Freestyle Lite and have been very satisfied with it. The Freestyle checks well against lab BG. ( Although in reading Eric’s post, I learned that I was supposed to check it twice against my meter. A tenth of a point deduction, lol.)
Short Answer: Yes.
The older strips are the Contour and the newer strips are the Contour Next.
Any meter that has “Contour Next” regardless of what ELSE it may have, would use the newer Contour Next strips.
I still do not believe there is any difference between any [functional] meter that uses the Contour Next strips. Regardless of what any review says it will not change my mind. I believe it is all about the strip.
We have three of the Contour Next One meters. I just ordered another 3 of the same meter. The meter itself is like $9 on Amazon.
The studies regarding the meter accuracy of the Contour Next show that although they use the same strip the Contour Next was the most accurate. This is something that jumped out at me when I first read them. I was very tempted by the smallest that looks like a memory stick but was steered away from it by inferior accuracy.
12 days later, but that’s interesting as, so far, the contour next has matched my lab result exactly (or like within a 1 point range). I didn’t have strips to compare it to the other meters I have but usually my Bayer Contour Next One, Next (when it’s not a broken pos due to it’s battery draining) and Abbott Freestyle Freedom Lite all read about the same. The relion and one touch meters all sorta go around it in some way or another. Usually way higher. My relion confirm, apparently ranked accurate as well, gave me really weird results…so I don’t trust it. Also don’t trust my one touch ultra 2 after the 423 then like 123 or whatever incident I had before. I’d put a lot of trust and agreement with the studies that say Bayer Contour Next strips and Abbott Freestyle Lite strips are pretty accurate.