How To Pair One Touch Verio Flex With Iphone

A Great New Meter System for Diabetes Blood Sugar Tracking

The OneTouch Verio Sync may be the best blood glucose meter for people with diabetes. But before you rush out to buy one as a Christmas present for yourself or for a loved one, please note one problem. It's not yet for sale.

The Verio Sync Paired with an iPhone

LifeScan Inc., the company that is making it, tells me that they expect their new meter to become available in January, February, or March of next year. LifeScan sells more blood glucose meters in this country than any other company, and the Verio Sync will join their three other current OneTouch meters. They are the OneTouch Verio IQ, the OneTouch Ultra Mini, and the OneTouch Ultra 2 (LifeScan also developed the OneTouch UltraLink, which works with a Medtronic insulin pump, and the OneTouch Ping meter remote that works with the Animas insulin pump).

So far, LifeScan has only a little teaser about the Verio Sync on its OneTouch website. But if you click on the "Keep me in sync" button there, you can sign up to be notified when this meter will become available.

The OneTouch Verio Sync System automatically sends blood sugar results wirelessly to your iPhone, using the OneTouch Reveal app. The system uses Bluetooth technology, and the OneTouch Reveal mobile app is already available on the Apple Store (search for OneTouch Reveal).

The meter and the mobile app run on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 4.3, 5, 6, or 7 . This means, unfortunately, that not everyone will fully benefit from the system (if you don't have one of those mobile devices, you can test your blood sugar level but not track it). Apple has probably sold fewer than 600 million of these devices so far (somewhat more than 250 million iPhones, 170 milllion iPads, and 100 million iPod touches), so I doubt if everyone who has diabetes has one.

A LifeScan representative sent me one of the first OneTouch Verio Sync meters for evaluation at no charge, and I have been testing it for a week. It is almost everything that I have hoped for in a blood glucose meter, although I can't say how accurate its reading are. While no meter seems to be accurate enough, I am not in a position to evaluate their relative accuracy. In another respect, I do wish that the test strips were a bit bigger, which would make them easier to handle.

What I like best about this system that it is exceptionally easy to use. I've never seen an easier way to note whether a reading was pre- or post-meal, which is crucial when you want to track your levels. It's also simple to customize the times of your meals and what you want to set as your low and high limits. I like the ability to delete readings that you know are inaccurate, something that many meters don't allow, because the people who make them think you would lie to your doctors about high readings.

You do all of this on the Reveal app, which I have been testing on my iPad 2 . You even set the date and time that way, and you recharge the meter's battery every two weeks or so by connecting it to the app (or with the AC adapter). Both the mini USB cable and the AC adapter are included in the package.

With this system you will get a lot for your money, particularly at first. LifeScan tells me that it "will be available for a limited time at the introductory promotional price of $19.99." It will be available at the forthcoming http://www.ShopOneTouch.com site as well as four online retailers, Walgrens, CVS, RiteAid, and Walmart. The OneTouch Reveal mobile app is a free download from the Apple App Store.

The Verio Sync uses the OneTouch Verio Test Strips, which most health plans cover at the lowest co-pay; Medicare Part B always cover them.

Did I mention how small the Verio Sync is? Not exactly, but you can see how its size compares with that of an iPhone. That's small.

Meet Our Writer

David Mendosa

David Mendosa was a journalist who learned in 1994 that he had type 2 diabetes, which he wrote about exclusively. He died in May 2017 after a short illness unrelated to diabetes. He wrote thousands of diabetes articles, two books about it, created one of the first diabetes websites, and published a monthly newsletter, "Diabetes Update." His very low-carbohydrate diet, A1C level of 5.3, and BMI of 19.8 kept his diabetes in remission without any drugs until his death.