The Most Beautiful Meter

Today I review the most beautiful blood glucose meter ever made. Not only does it look beautiful but it also works beautifully.

It's the Bionime Rightest GM100. The Bionime Corp. in Taiwan makes it. Its appearance reminds me of Apple products, especially some of their iPods and remotes.

When I Took This Picture, My BG was Too Low After a Strenuous Hike for Me to Remember to Set the Date

This meter is as beautiful in its own way -- and perhaps more useful -- than the beautiful wildflowers that I have been photographing in the Rockies this spring.


A Mountain Rose

I saw the Bionime Rightest GM100 for the first time at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Jeff Konecke, Bionime's vice president for the Americas showed it to me. I was blown away.

Earlier I wrote here about Bionime's first meter in the American marketplace. That was the Rightest GM300, which Invictus Scientific Inc. in San Diego distributed for Bionime in the U.S. At that time Jeff headed Invictus, but he subsequently merged his company into Bionime's operations.

I called the earlier Bionime offering "A Noble Meter" because, unlike other meter companies that use carbon for their test strips, Bionime uses gold -- a noble metal.

The test strips for new meter also uses gold contacts. Jeff showed me a bunch of the tiny -- almost microscopic -- gold cups that they use. That makes a difference in quality and accuracy, but the large rigid plastic strips that they use also make a big difference in ease of use compared with the tiny, hard-to-handle test strips that most other meter manufacturers use. You can see from the picture that we also insert the strips in sideways, unlike traditions strips.

I asked Jeff, "Doesn't that rigid plastic add a lot to your cost?"

"Not really," he replied. "We figure it costs us only about three cents more per vial."

I compared the new Bionime meter with the WaveSense Jazz, which rates high in my accuracy book. Results were quite close.

All the Bionime Rightest GM100 needs is a more beautiful name.