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Warning to all Freestyle Libre users

How unfortunate there are language settings on this Singapore one
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There are no language settings on the uk version. No idea if each country's libre has language settings....
 
There are no language settings on the uk version. No idea if each country's libre has language settings?
 
As far as I can see they are all different. My UK one has not got language settings. It does have a mode that says professional options on it which the sing one has not also the beep is louder on the sing one. I am still waiting for my UK ones to arrive ordered ages ago. I purchased these as their is defo no shortage of supply here. I have even got the details of my hotel concierge to send some to me if it continues to be difficult to get them in the UK/ Ireland where they are made. I am new to all this and even the test strips for my blood monitor i was prescribed where wrong size, Why different sizes? To catch people like me out.
 
I know they had to make changes to get approved in the USA, and the UK setup did not pass the USA regulations.
 
I eventually got a reply from Abbott saying the reason they make the Freestyle Libre country specific is to stop them being sold on the black market. I asked other questions like how do I change the language if I bought one in the country I am in. Change the mg/dl to mmol if I needed to. No reply.

I think Abbott needs to change this design flaw.
 
It is not a design flaw, given that they have to spend much more in some countries then others getting approval to sell the libre.
 
I think it is design flaw as it prevents sensors being used. Test strips are not country specific and will work with any reader from any country.

Both test strips and the libre sensor are designed to give blood glucose readings. The readings are very important to the health of the user.

The fact they have been made country specific creates problems. Users cannot buy sensors while on holiday or traveling. The reason users will need to buy on holiday is because the sensors fail prematurely sometimes or fall off. Readers also fail, so would mean the user couldn't buy the reader in the country they are in and then use it in another country.

This also creates redundant readers that will just get thrown in the bin. I now have 2 that will potentially be thrown in the bin. 1 has never been used.

People also now work around the world and go on holiday. We do not all live and work in the same country. This is the 21st century.
 
MonsterLC said:
I eventually got a reply from Abbott saying the reason they make the Freestyle Libre country specific is to stop them being sold on the black market. I asked other questions like how do I change the language if I bought one in the country I am in. Change the mg/dl to mmol if I needed to. No reply.

I think Abbott needs to change this design flaw.
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It's not a flaw.
 
So if the sensors are country specific why isn't the charger? Surely if they want to make it country specific the charger should be as well. The charger works on a range of voltages and frequencies that cover most of the country's power supplies in the world, 100v-240v 50-60hz. So not country specific, all you need is an adapter or just use the usb to charge. The test strips for the reader are not country specific. So they have made it country specific in some ways, but not others.

So in my opinion it is a design fault/flaw.
 
They have one and one duty that is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders, hence if making the reader/sensor country-specific increases their profit, it is not a design fault, it is their duty to do it.

Making test strips country-specific would put up the cost of making them, hence due to competitive pressures, test strips are not country specific. If you don't like the free market, don't take advantage of anything the free market provides us with.....
 
MonsterLC said:
So if the sensors are country specific why isn't the charger? Surely if they want to make it country specific the charger should be as well. The charger works on a range of voltages and frequencies that cover most of the country's power supplies in the world, 100v-240v 50-60hz. So not country specific, all you need is an adapter or just use the usb to charge. The test strips for the reader are not country specific. So they have made it country specific in some ways, but not others.

So in my opinion it is a design fault/flaw.
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I think it's intentional.
 
ringi said:
They have one and one duty that is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders, hence if making the reader/sensor country-specific increases their profit, it is not a design fault, it is their duty to do it.

Making test strips country-specific would put up the cost of making them, hence due to competitive pressures, test strips are not country specific. If you don't like the free market, don't take advantage of anything the free market provides us with.....
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Isn't making them country specific an attempt to rig the free market? A truly free market would ensure more competition and keener prices for the consumer. This would be ideal. Where it doesn't exist, sometimes regulation is necessary for the Public good, especially in the provision of basic services - gas, water, electricity etc.
 
There are regulations saying that "country-specific" must not stop any product or service being used in any part of the EU, if it is sold any other part of the EU. Given that there is also a EU wide regulator that must approve products like the libre this make sense, as there is only one cost for them to pay to get approval to sell to all of the EU.

Remember that most drug R&D is paid for based on the very high prices in the USA, hence letting the rest of the world get new drugs "on the cheap".
 
MonsterLC said:
So if the sensors are country specific why isn't the charger? Surely if they want to make it country specific the charger should be as well. The charger works on a range of voltages and frequencies that cover most of the country's power supplies in the world, 100v-240v 50-60hz. So not country specific, all you need is an adapter or just use the usb to charge. The test strips for the reader are not country specific. So they have made it country specific in some ways, but not others
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Chargers are easier. USB became a ubiquitous method for data connection and charging, so there's a huge supply of OEM chargers or components to turn into your own or a badged power supply. And they should meet relevant safety standards, and not catch fire or cause your device to fry. Then of course there's Apple, who decommoditise standards to lock customers into buying much more expensive designer chargers & accessories..

So in my opinion it is a design fault/flaw.
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I think it's a marketing flaw. The response from Abbott says it's to prevent a 'black' market, when they probably mean grey. So preventing price arbitrage and shopping online for the cheapest sensors. Behind that, there's some legitmate stuff. Different countries have different regs, and they can be strict for medical devices. But if you're designing for a global market, usually you design to meet (and preferably exceed) the strictest ones. Otherwise production costs go up because you'd need seperate lines to produce multiple versions.

Language settings are often more fun, and a globalisation challenge for development/production. Back in the old days when I designed embedded systems, memory was expensive and limited. So adding fonts and translations for every language took up a lot of memory and increased cost. Now, memory's much cheaper and larger, but you'd still want to be able to set a default language on the readers. So local primary language and ideally a backup like English. Then reader production would need to set that for destination market. And unless the reader's using a lot of memory, it would be inefficient not to use a common software build, ie all languages.

Not sure why language setting's disabled on some readers though. If it were me, I'd have that in the menu for all readers. There's also the potential to use country info from sensors as they seem to use that for the DRM to offer a language change option. Again the way they're currently configured is inconvenient, and just encourages development of 3rd party apps to work around the restrictions.
 
first14808 said:
But if you're designing for a global market, usually you design to meet (and preferably exceed) the strictest ones. Otherwise production costs go up because you'd need seperate lines to produce multiple versions.
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A few issues,
  • Being a medical device, it is likely that the system will need to reproved for sale in each market whenever the software is changed
  • Being a “version one” product, they needed to get it out quickly in one market so as to test how well it worked and get cash flow, hence not a good option to spend the time up-front designing it to keep to the regulations for all markets.
  • Being a CGM without alarms, and hence not being life dependent, they needed to wait for regulators in each market to agree what regulations it had to keep to. (It does not keep to the international standard for blood glucose meters.)
  • For example (if I recall correctly) in the USA sensors can’t be read until they have been on for 24hr and only last only 10 days, but in the UK, they allow sensors to last longer. Should we in the UK be forced to buy more sensors so as to keep to the USA regs?
I predict that within a few year there will be 2nd generation affordable none live dependant glucose monitors that keep to the international standard for blood glucose meters. I also predict another company will come out with a system, and then the free market will start to really work. At present, the free market is working to the extent that lots of people would like a libre but don’t need one, so are price sensitive.
 
Ah, but 'free markets' don't really exist. They end up less profitable, sadly.

Some of it's a first-mover disadvantage. So currently we have this-
https://www.iso.org/standard/54976.html

ISO 15197 for in vitro glucometers. So if you develop an in vivo version, you should develop to meet or exceed the specifications laid down in that. So do trials and publish results showing your system's at least as accurate as traditional strip & dip solutions. If that works, then the fun starts.. So lobbying for a new or revised standard that includes in vivo testing, preferably in a way that favors your product. But then competitors will often be doing the same thing to favor theirs and the non-free market stuff usually ends up happening. Especially when patents are involved, but larger companies can end up doing pooling and cross-licensing deals that carve up the market and keep smaller competitors or new entrants out.. Which is can be a long drawn out and very expensive process.. Not to mention booooring :)

Which may explain why the US has decided on 10 days, ie a competitor's sensor only lasts that long and they've lobbied so there's a level playing field. Or the US may have genuine concerns about safety & infection risk if a sensor's left in longer. Which could then feed into DRM, so preventing US customers saving money by buying UK versions that last longer. Then there can be features that could avoid litigation costs, especially in the US where there's probably more lawyers than diabetics. So figure on something useful like a hypo alarm. Useful to know if BG's dropping below X and alerting the user, but if it doesn't alarm, it could result in a very expensive class action. The US is.. strange like that. My favorite example was a warning stamped onto the side of a pistol saying it may cause death or serious injury. To me, that seemed a bit redundant, but it was the result of a lawsuit claiming the manufacturer didn't provide enough warnings that guns were dangerous.
 
I think this thread is going off topic. This is warning to all Freestyle Libre users to make sure they realise that buying sensors in another country means they won't work together. So making sure users buy more sensors for holidays and loads if they are working abroad. Also Abbott needs to put a warning on their websites throughout the world.

Also making users aware that if the problem occurs that there are third apps that will reader the sensors.

Perhaps Abbott should make buying from another country possible as they are country/region specific. Postage could be costly though.

ringi your comments don't add any value, you are just saying the shareholders want more money. Which they will get as users need to buy more sensors. A PR, public relations problem with users can be more costly than fixing the problem.
 
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