The battle of the sensors

[Eduardus]

Hello,
I think most sensor users know about now that choosing a sensor is not that easy
Some people only complain about sensors getting dirty.
I want it to stick and sometimes touching it while putting a backpack is already enough. Maybe i will some referre bands made to measure next time i am in Vietnam.
Usually when you spot an test of a sensor on the internet the information will be given by the people who are reacting.
I remember seeing a post from someone who started with a certain ( i think it was Dexcom) sensor a few years ago and the first 3 years no problems at all and then slowly more and more start working to early.
I have this experience with the Guardian 4 . SO i think we can be pretty sure that it is a lack of quality control or skipping costs one way or another that will cause reliability to drop.
Take a look at the ( electric)kitchen utensils Some of us have Tupperware which go back to "" Twiggy time '' A lot of plastic stuff you buy now will get brittle/ fall apart after a few years. BUT medical devices need to keep working as many days as promised. In a year irather have 52 7 days sensors all working as promised than half the numbers of sensors that should work 15 days but 5 needing replacement at a moment you are not expecting.
Maybe every country should have a database were every sensor which died to early is '' stored '' .This could force the maufactures to invest in quality control.
Greetings, eduard

 

[EllieM]

SO i think we can be pretty sure that it is a lack of quality control or skipping costs one way or another that will cause reliability to drop.

Not necessarily. I was an early user of the libre (before it needed a 1 attached to it) and had to stop using it not because of its reliability but because my body developed an allergy. ( I could have coped with the rash but it combined with totally unreliable results. Abbott sent me many new sensors and even a new reader, so I think it was an issue with my body not their tech.)

Having said that there are a lot of reports of unreliable sensors of various brands, and I think you make a good point. Of course, when you are using a pump that requires a particular sensor you are stuck with that manufacturer. When I was put on a pump I was given the choice of medtronic or tandem - I chose the tandem not because I thought its algorithm was better, but because I was already a happy dexcom user and had heard bad things about the G4.

I think it's a good thing that many pumps now work with more than one sensor brand so you aren't tied to a cgm that you don't get on with.

I will follow this discussion with interest.

 

[Eduardus]

Hello,
I have read about stickers ( glue) causing skin irritation. The main problem with my stickers ( from the infuse sets) that they wont always stick that well.
For the sensor i would prefer a bigger sticker that will surely stick and not a '' miniature sticker '' because of better looks. The manufacturer can reduce costs by making it smaller.

In the near future i wanna try the Instinct when it is available in my country. Maybe i will wait a few weeks to see what the first users are saying. Of course they should be able to develop a sensor which will work for the majority of people. I could imagine that if you are severely drunk the test results could not be perfect.

The users need to be informed about sensors which have worked for several months and then suddenly start doing strange things. Once a model has been '' approved '' by the '' decision makers '' in your country it should be obvious that 95% of the people can decide to start using it.
I think once you are used to a sensor/pump combination they will all give comparable results. It could well be that if you work in shifts one pump will work better than another one.
As long as the pump does not know what you will be doing the rest of the day there will always be an uncertainty. With my pump i can choose a sugar level that the pump will try to '' reach '' as many hours as possible during the day. I think i can choose between two values and i go for the higher one which is still a nice one so i will have some '' headroom '' but one of the medical staff will always tell me why not go for the lower one. I tell her i feel more comfortable if i have a higher '' safety margin '' . Once you are retired and will be home for several days you could try the lower one.

Greetings, Eduard