Abbott rebrands Optium diabetes testers, introduces 'no coding'

Says Lorraine Bellingham, Commercial Manager Sub Saharan Africa: "For insulin users, regularly checking blood glucose levels and ketones is a way of life. Accuracy is critical but so is ease of use and efficiency. The rebranding has allowed us to deliver a fresh, new, updated design to the South African market but, more importantly, the new design houses an updated product - the new technology into our testing strips eliminates the need for painstaking coding, or calibration, of each batch of new test strips in the meter without compromising our highest standard of accuracy."

"This will increase speed and simplicity of use of the blood glucose and ketone test strips, and reduce the possibility of erroneous readings which occur when calibration is omitted. It's just one step less but it's one that makes management of this chronic condition that much easier for people who must sometimes do a blood test four or more times a day."

No coding

Announced at the recent Society for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa (SEMDSA) Congress, the 'no coding' feature of the Abbott Diabetes Care FreeStyle Optium range is a valuable, functional enhancement that will serve to better differentiate this product range in the local market. The new test strips can also be used with older Optium meters - there is no need to replace or upgrade them.

Notes Bellingham: "Thanks to our expertise in strips manufacturing, the new test strips are all calibrated to a single standard and all bear the same code - 45001. The old meters will recognise these strips and will not require coding. The new range of FreeStyle Optium meter can, however, only be used with the new test strips."

Calibration has in the past been a feature of diabetes testing products. Batches of test strips typically varied in sensitivity or type, so codes on each batch are used to indicate a variation from a standard solution or type of test. Entering this code into a meter is necessary to ensure accurate readings.

Individually wrapped

Another distinguishing feature of the FreeStyle Optium products is the fact that each test strip is individually wrapped in foil. "It's not a new feature of these products but it is super convenient because it eliminates cross contamination when multiple tests are taken and protects against humidity in our high temperature," says Bellingham. "In addition, if the first blood sample is too small, our test strips have a 5 second window that allows users to reapply a further sample for testing (only a small 0.6 µL sample is required). This makes these strips both practical and economical."

The new Freestyle packaging includes disease education information for the patient's reference. Larry Distiller, Principal Physician and Managing Director of the Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology (CDE), says, "It is important that the information is being related to the patients in this way."

The bright yellow packaging is easily recognisable on retail shelves and the colour coding will facilitate fast identification of specific products in the range. The new packaging replaces the more subdued blue, with a blue band identifying the FreeStyle Optium meter (previously branded Optium Xceed) and FreeStyle Optium blood glucose test strips (previously branded Optium Plus). A purple band wraps the FreeStyle Optium Ketones test strips.