It’s almost annual ADA Conference showtime, Folks, and news announcements are in the air. Here are some initial bits you might like to know about:
* Eli Lilly has announced the winners of its Inspired by Diabetes Contest, notably Theresa Garnero — a San Francisco-based nurse and CDE who’s used her drawing talent to make light of diabetes in cartoon form. Congrats, Theresa!
* Who says nothing is new in the glucose meter market? Actually a number of players are “dumbing down” their products for super-easy testing without all the fuss. This morning my buddies at AgaMatrix
announced the launch of two new meters in their WaveSense product line (along with the Keynote & Jazz models): WaveSense Presto and WaveSense Pro.
The WS Presto is a no-code meter “that consumers can buy at a value price.” That means the test strips don’t require coding, and it costs “considerably less than no code meters from the major brands.” It also boasts “improved ergonomics” and a brighter backlight.
The WS Pro is actually designed for use in hospital and clinical settings, “with added features for increased safety.” I’m not quite sure what that means yet.
I know this all sounds like just a bunch of bells & whistles, but the whole thing about WaveSense is the proprietary technology that improves significantly on the accuracy of glucose testing. Read all about that HERE. Personally, I’m not jumping to switch meters, but I sure do love to see improvements in D-designs, no matter how incremental.
* Speaking of which, you may have heard rumor that a San-Diego based company called Tandem Diabetes
Care is preparing to release a new insulin pump in few week. Well, the rumors are true! And that’s all I know about that at the moment, since their website is still under construction.
* In preparation for all the news coming out of this weekend’s ADA meeting, Novo Nordisk has created an
informational podcast, which is nothing short of weird. There’s some good info about GLP-1 drugs and other research advancements, but both the interviewer and interviewee sound computer-generated. If they are real people, they need to loosen up and learn how to sound less scripted 
This is why it’s nice to attend industry events in person sometimes: just to experience the actual people behind all the corporate logos that make the stuff that keeps us alive. Stay tuned.
Wow, glad to know people are having so much fun with all these cartoons and gadgets…not one word about a cure in there.
Sorry, had a bad night & feel a little grumpy today…
Just took a look at the Wavesense site: the “improved safety feature” is a “test strip ejector” which works similarly to used-lancet ejectors.
An interesting item on both the Pro and the Presto is that they are able to do graphical analysis on-meter.
I had been thinking about trying out the Wavesense… now I think I’d rather try the Wavesense Pro…
Why doesn’t WaveSense marry their product to the Pelikan lancing device? Then we’d have the best of both worlds: better accuracy and less pain and finger damage.
Ok, less expensive meter=good. But the real issue is the cost of the test strips, which I assume are just as spendy as ever since they are not mentioned.
I just recieved the Wavesense Keynote blood glucose machine, it is fantastic and the strips cost 18.00 for a box of 50 strips. The company is great. I was looking for a new meter, I calleed my diabetes supply DME and asked if they had the machine and strips they said that they had the strips not the machine. I told this to Wavesense. they sent me out a new machineand I am loving it .