Diabetes history - what was the first mass-market glucometer?

[Adam Becke]

What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?

Anybody have fond memories of it?

Adam Becker

[Tiger Lily]

i think that www.mendosa.com has the story of the
glucose meter

glucometer is a brand name (fyi)

i remember my first One Touch meter that is now the 'Basic'
meter by life scan................. and the abomination
'medisense accumeter or something like that'............i call
the medisense an abomination because of it's very random sugar
generation system............

kate
--
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"Adam Becker Sr" <adam_becker_sr@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1108999239.643622.172410@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?
>
> Anybody have fond memories of it?
>
> Adam Becker

[William C]

Adam,

The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put blood
on a strip, wait one minute, rinse off the blood with a squirt
bottle, wait a minute, and then put the strip in the reader.

You then turned a little knob that looked like a radio tuning
knob to center a needle. You then read the number off the knob
where an arrow was pointing.

They were horribly inaccurate, but better than nothing.

WCB

"Adam Becker Sr" <adam_becker_sr@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1108999239.643622.172410@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?
>
> Anybody have fond memories of it?
>
> Adam Becker

[Charles]

The first one I ever had was an accu-check, but I used
Test-tape for a long time after they came out. I think a One
Touch Basic was the second one I had? Charlie

> Anybody have fond memories of it?
>
> Adam Becker

[Jennifer]

Adam Becker Sr wrote:

> What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?
>
> Anybody have fond memories of it?
>
> Adam Becker
>

Both David Mendosa and Dr. Bernstein have some interesting
stories about the early days of metering: (and you don't have
to agree with Dr. B's nutritional approach to appreciate his
history with glucose meters... he's been a T1 most all his
life and was one of the first diabetics to use a meter on a
daily basis).

http://www.fda.gov/diabetes/glucose.html#16

http://www.mendosa.com/memories.htm

http://www.diabetes-normalsugars.com/book/mylife.shtml

http://www.diabetes-normalsugars.com/articles/meter_his-
tory.shtml

Jennifer

[W. Baker]

In alt.support.diabetes William C Biggs MD
<iiweulojrtom@spammotel.com> wrote:
: Adam,

: The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put
: blood on a strip, wait one minute, rinse off the blood with
: a squirt bottle, wait a minute, and then put the strip in
: the reader.

: You then turned a little knob that looked like a radio
: tuning knob to center a needle. You then read the number off
: the knob where an arrow was pointing.

: They were horribly inaccurate, but better than nothing.

: WCB

Were these before the chemstrips that you read visually? I
used them when first diagnosed. one minute with blood on them,
then wipe off and wait another minute and then compare them to
the box. Not very precise, but handy to carry around. No
machine involved at all.

Wendy

[Elizabeth]

"William C Biggs MD" <iiweulojrtom@spammotel.com> wrote in
message news:8QoSd.13263$ds.12496@okepread07...
> Adam,
>
> The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put
> blood on a strip, wait one minute, rinse off the blood with
> a squirt bottle, wait a minute, and then put the strip in
> the reader.
>
> You then turned a little knob that looked like a radio
> tuning knob to
center
> a needle. You then read the number off the knob where an
> arrow was
pointing.
>

The first one I had worked something like that, only it wasn't
as primitive. You had to put the blood on the strip outside
the meter, wait 60 seconds and blot off the blood with a
napkin. Then the strip went into the meter. There was also a
button involved, but I can't remember if the button was
pressed when you put the blood on the strip, or after it was
blotted off. I just remember that it was tricky getting all of
the steps done before the meter beeped. The strips looked like
the visual urine strips, and required a lot of blood. At least
there was no knobs or dials, it had a LCD readout.

And the strips were just as expensive as they are today.

--
Liz

[Adam Becke]

William C Biggs MD wrote:
> Adam,
>
> The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put
> blood on a
strip,
> wait one minute, rinse off the blood with a squirt
> bottle, wait a
minute,
> and then put the strip in the reader.

Thanks to everyone who answered. The reason I asked was
because of a great review of cool gadgets over at Mobile PC
Magazine http://www.mobilepcmag.com/features/2005_03/top100ga-
dgets.html It's their list of the top 100 cool gadgets. Lots
of great gadgets - but glucose meters didn't make the list!
Personally, I think the pocket size glucometer is niftier than
the Pocket Fisherman, or even the Zippo lighter. Fortunately
they asked for submissions for gadgets they forgot.

Hat tip - I found the cite for gadget list over at Daypop on
their Top 40 list. They spider a huge number of blogs and rank
links that have been added in the last 24 hours. There's
always something cool on their list. http://www.daypop.com/top

Adam Becker

[William C]

Wendy,

Yes this was before the Chemstrip bG.

It used Dextrostix and was called the Eyetone.

The first time I used one was about 1980. I recall using it
extensively during my internship year in 1982-83. At that
point it was just making the transition to patient use. They
were expensive so only doctors offices or hospitals typically
had them. The first patients with them were children with
difficult DM, or unusually well motivated adults with
diffilcult BG control.

At that point in time, the standard of care was still urine
testing. My college roommate had type 1. Our dorm room was the
size of a large closet, and I got to the point where I could
detect the ketones smell before he even got up to test.

I wonder why nobody ever came out with a "breathalyzer" type
device for ketones. It seems that it wouldn't be that hard.

WCB

"W. Baker" <wbaker@panix.com> wrote in message
news:cvdqi8$m6u$2@reader2.panix.com...
> In alt.support.diabetes William C Biggs MD
> <iiweulojrtom@spammotel.com> wrote:
> : Adam,
>
> : The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put
> : blood on a
> strip,
> : wait one minute, rinse off the blood with a squirt bottle,
> : wait a
> minute,
> : and then put the strip in the reader.
>
> : You then turned a little knob that looked like a radio
> : tuning knob to
> center
> : a needle. You then read the number off the knob where an
> : arrow was
> pointing.
>
> : They were horribly inaccurate, but better than nothing.
>
> : WCB
>
> Were these before the chemstrips that you read visually? I
> used them when first diagnosed. one minute with blood on
> them, then wipe off and wait another minute and then compare
> them to the box. Not very precise, but handy to carry
> around. No machine involved at all.
>
> Wendy

[Patrick Le]

"W. Baker" <wbaker@panix.com> writes:

>In alt.support.diabetes William C Biggs MD
><iiweulojrtom@spammotel.com> wrote:
>: Adam,

>: The first one I used was from Ames/Miles. You had to put
>: blood on a strip, wait one minute, rinse off the blood with
>: a squirt bottle, wait a minute, and then put the strip in
>: the reader.

>: You then turned a little knob that looked like a radio
>: tuning knob to center a needle. You then read the number
>: off the knob where an arrow was pointing.

>: They were horribly inaccurate, but better than nothing.

>Were these before the chemstrips that you read visually? I
>used them when first diagnosed. one minute with blood on
>them, then wipe off and wait another minute and then compare
>them to the box. Not very precise, but handy to carry around.
>No machine involved at all.

True, but not the best idea for those whose color vision was a
little off. (Of course, that didn't apply as much to the old
reagent strips for spotting excess sugar in the urine, but
that was subject to more than a little judgement as well.)

--
Patrick "The Chief Instigator" Humphrey (patrick@io.com)
Houston, Texas www.chiefinstigator.us.tt/aeros.php
(TCI's 2004-05 Houston Aeros) LAST GAME: Utah 2, Houston
1 (SO) (February 21) NEXT GAME: Wednesday, February 23
at Utah, 8:05

[Charles]

"Adam Becker Sr" <adam_becker_sr@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1108999239.643622.172410@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?
>
> Anybody have fond memories of it?
>
> Adam Becker

I was cleaning out a drawer today and found some manual
lancets that the Air Force used to issue. Talk about a
challenge, it's not so bad with the auto-lancet. Did
anyone else ever use these? I must have got them at least
20 years ago.

Charlie

[Charles]

"Charles" <charlesowens39@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:VuGdnXsnc60-s4ffRVn-iA@comcast.com...
> The first one I ever had was an accu-check, but I used
> Test-tape for a
long
> time after they came out. I think a One Touch Basic was the
> second one I had? Charlie
>
> > Anybody have fond memories of it?
> >
> > Adam Becker
> >
Now that I think about it. I don't think a meter used to come
with an auto-lancet and that is why I found these manual ones
today. They were packaged individually much like my test
strips are now. I have forgotten to take my auto-lancet with
me on a trip and used one manually that is stored in the
carrying case.

Charlie

[W. Baker]

In alt.support.diabetes Charles
<charlesowens39@comcast.net> wrote:

: "Adam Becker Sr" <adam_becker_sr@yahoo.com> wrote in
: message news:1108999239.643622.172410@z14g2000cwz.googlegr-
: oups.com...
: > What was the first portable glucometer sold to the public?
: >
: > Anybody have fond memories of it?
: >
: > Adam Becker

: I was cleaning out a drawer today and found some manual
: lancets that the Air Force used to issue. Talk about a
: challenge, it's not so bad with the auto-lancet. Did
: anyone else ever use these? I must have got them at least
: 20 years ago.

: Charlie

: >

I never had those, but i had a kind of guillotine looking
thing that came down on the finger quite hard. It had a
platform that came in two thicknesses for deeper or shallower
penetration. I think it was called an Autolet. When I got mu
meter with the soft-touch lancing devise I couldn't believe
how much less painful it was. I used the old one with the
Chemstrips Bg.

Wendy