LifeScan OneTouch Vita
Lifescan’s established OneTouch range included the One Touch VITA early in 2009 and was revised later in the year to accommodate user feedback. The blood glucose monitor can help users link the effects of food to a person’s blood glucose level.
Aimed at Type 2
It’s one of the first machines to be aimed at Type 2 diabetics on insulin.
The monitor can analyze glucose levels from a very small drop of blood taken from a finger, forearm or palm clearly displaying the result, storing the reading in its memory for future use. It’s also pre-coded, which means no calibration codes or solutions are needed, adding to the convenience.
VITA meters can be obtained from your healthcare professional. Call the customer care lines below to see if you qualify for a free trial or call the customer care lines below to see if you qualify for a free trial.
This meter is the OneTouch Vita. OneTouch is the collective name of the meters from Lifescan. There's a few to choose from and one may suit you better than the others, so have a think about which you might prefer. The Vita wass aimed originally at people with type 2 diabetes despite controversy about whether type 2 diabetics should test. Certainly if you want to, you should. Your doctor should be working with you to maintain your health as best as you can manage. If you want to use testing as part of that, you ought to be supported.
Most meters have been doing this for a while, but what meters are now focussing in on is being able to tag meal times. So, to see how your blood sugars go through the day, before or after a meal you can tag them (blood glucose readings). The other thing that the meters are doing - they store the data and you can access the data in a certain way.
Let me do a blood test on the OneTouch Vita and show you something briefly on the menu. Simple button to switch it on. Simple enough blood test machine.
You've got your lancet. You can twist it for the depth setting, charge it like that and release it with this button. Pop the sensor in the top and it tells you to apply the sample. So that counts down and gives your reading. It questions you whether it's after a meal. No, as it happens it's mid-morning and not after a meal. Then you can display the results - either last result, all results or averages. So over time you can see patterns and that can help you control your diabetes.
One of the benefits of the OneTouch Vita is that it takes a very small amount of blood and you can use alternate site testing. So if you wanted to test from your forearm, then that's impossible in case your fingers are sensitive or are overused with blood testing.
The other thing the OneTouch Vita facilitates is averages. You can do averages for 7 days, 14 days or 30 days. And that's going to help you track patterns. Also to track adjustments and see whether they are affecting your averages or not.
LifeScan OneTouch Vita Technical Information
- STRIPS: One Touch Ultra test strips are available on prescription.
- DATA: Diabetes Data Management software with USB cable.
- BATTERIES REQUIRED: The OneTouch Ultra Meter uses one 3.0 V (#2032 or equivalent) lithium battery.
- SUPPORT: 0800-121-200 (UK); 1800-535-676 (Ireland)
It can help people with diabetes to see the impact that their diet has on their short, medium and long-term mean blood glucose levels and can reveal how food choices can affect their blood glucose levels. This knowledge can be invaluable to people gaining greater control of their diabetes.