[Diabetes-talk] SoloMeter Questions

[Mike Freeman]

Dan:

The Solo meter is better than the Prodigy Voice at giving an error 
indication if too little blood is sucked up by the strip. Whereas with the 
Prodigy Voice, one must take a second reading to determine if what seems 
like an anomalous reading is just that or whether one's blood sugar is as 
low as the mneter indicates, the Solo V2 tends either to give a plausible 
reading, give you an error message or flat-out tell you that you didn't get 
enough blood on the strip. On the other hand, you'd have to take a second 
reading most of the time anyway so while the Solo may cut down on 
frustration a bit, the practical outcome is that most of the time, you'd 
have to do the same thing (take a second reading) no matter which meter you 
used.

The Solo has a much nicer case than does the Prodigy Voice -- the Solo case 
is rigid and there's a place for lancets, lancet device, strips and meter 
and even control solution.

On the other hand, the Solo has the drawback that it has no "Say Display" 
key to repeat whatever is on the display. This means that in order to hear 
the reading you've just taken, you must pull out the strip and go back into 
Memory Mode to hear the reading. In addition, when reviewing readings in 
memory (or hearing the reading that you've just taken after lancing your 
finger), the time of the reading is not voiced even though it is on the 
print display and even though the *date* of readings in memory is spoken. To 
my mind, this is a serious, nay nearly fatal, drawback to the Solo in that I 
keep a written log of my readings with date/time as well as value of 
readings and don't always have a chance to write down the reading 
immediately.

On the other hand, the Solo allows you to flag a reading as being either 
before or after a meal or leave it unflagged and one can set an alarm to 
tell you when next to test although in truth I can see little need for such 
a feature.

According to two people whom I trust, the Solo software to download readings 
to a computer is *not* accessible with either JAWS or Window Eyes, this 
despite claims of some to the contrary. The Prodigy Voice software is also 
not acccessible.

And the Prodigy Voice case pulls a hard vacuum; I use a different case with 
it.

Bottom line: while there's mush about the Solo V2 to like, I'd still go with 
the prodigy Voice in that there is a Say Display key and one hears the 
date/time of every reading in memory. Wish the Prodigy Voice would say the 
date/time as the reading was being taken, though (it does say it when it is 
turned on).

HTH!

Mike Freeman, President
Diabetes Action Network
National Federation of the Blind

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan" <keysjd at comcast.net>
To: <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 3:07 PM
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] SoloMeter Questions


> Hello All,
> I've been away from the list for a while.
> I am now getting ready to purchase the SoloMeter. I just wanted to get 
> some opinions on what people think about it. Also, is it covered under 
> Medicare and other primary insurance?
> TIA
> Dan
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