Blood sugar measuring instruments place many users before problems. The university of the media in Stuttgart tested 14 devices. The result: many are user unfriendly and provoke errors with serious consequences for the health.
Stuttgart - of the eight million diabetics in Germany it falls many heavily to serve their blood sugar measuring instruments correctly. To this result information designers of the university of the media (HdM) come into Stuttgart to an investigation of 14 devices available in the trade. Some showed up as a little user friendly and provoked control errors. These are more serious with medicine devices than with a computer or a mobile phone, remind the university.
If the blood sugar is incorrectly read off due to a wrong operation, the diabetic proportions its medicines not correctly and suffers a health damage. Therefore medicine devices must have to be used safe and intuitive. In addition the legislator obligates the manufacturers the data according to since June 2006 with the auxiliary standard ISO 60601-1-6.
Decision for a measuring instrument must be well considered
The tested devices exhibited nevertheless large differences in the use friendliness. “From well arranged operations to dangerous work procedures with the equipment we found, say everything” the Forscherin involved Maike Reichel. Thus an older subject did not interpret “24h” than time format, but when dosage instruction concluded and: “I must squirt 24 units.” Another equipment requested the user to laying on of blood, although the Teststreifen was incorrectly introduced.
Forscherin Reichel recommends to diabetics and physicians to consider the decision for a measuring instrument well. Good measuring instruments such as Accu Chek Aviva of Roche and Ascensia Contour of Bavarian guaranteed a safe measurement in few steps. Diabetics could access there on important functions over a large and well readable display fast.
