WARNING: The Verio IQ has been recalled as of March 25, 2013. The unit can fail to deliver a high blood glucose warning if your glucose levels are above 1025. We’ll let you know when the re-designed meters ship.
The OneTouch Verio IQ is the newest offering (Summer 2012) in Lifescan’s family of glucose meters. Over the last several years, it has been nice to see the positive evolution of various glucose monitors, and the Verio is part of this evolution.
This glucose meter offers some great features, such as a wonderful color display. More importantly, it offers the benefit of helping you keep tabs on the subtle patterns or fluctuations in your blood glucose levels.
The aim is to smooth these fluctuations out for better glucose control and overall health. More on how this meter aims to do this below.
Key Advantages
- Color Display: The Verio IQ has a brilliant color LCD display. It also has a nighttime mode, which can light up the top of the meter where the test strip port is located. All in all, I don’t know why more companies don’t provide color displays, but OneTouch does.
- Memory: You can store over 750 tests in this meter.
- High and Low Color Flags: This is a relatively minor feature, but if your test falls too high or too low (you set the parameters) the test is flagged with a particular color.
- Easy Navigation: Along with the color screen the Verio IQ has very intuitive navigation of the settings and features. While not quite up to the standard of a smartphone, many meters, including the Verio IQ seem to be headed in this direction.
- Power Source: There are no batteries to replace. The unit is rechargeable. Typically, you will have to recharge the unit about twice a month.
- Pattern Alert Technology: The key benefit to the OneTouch Verio IQ is that it has added what they call Pattern Alert Technology. You will test your blood at certain times every day. Over the course of testing, the computer will alert you to “patterns” in your blood sugar levels. For example, if you always have low blood sugar at 10:00 a.m., the meter will alert you to this low pattern and you can then try and figure out why this is happening. You could probably do this with a good old fashion log book, but it is nice for the software to do it for you.
Key Disadvantages
- No AST: You cannot do alternative site testing with this unit.
- Accuracy: This is not really a disadvantage, but more of a notation. The meter is roughly based on the Ultra 2 glucose meter, which is a very good meter. I list it as a disadvantage simply because many of the new meters add good bells and whistles, but they rely on older meter technology for the actual testing accuracy. I think people appreciate the new features, but what they really want is better home glucose meter testing accuracy. In the Verio IQ’s case, the Ultra 2 technology is very good, so I would not let this stop a purchase.
Test Strips and Other Equipment
The OneTouch Verio IQ uses OneTouch Verio Gold Test Strips. These are advanced strips that seek to adjust test results if you have certain substances in your blood, such as pain relief medication. Pain relief medication can affect blood glucose testing results, so these strips try and make sure that doesn’t happen.
The meter is only about $35. The test strips are a bit pricey at approximately $88-$108 for a box of 100. However, when this review was written (June 2012), the meter had just been released. Strips will always be high during the first 6 months to a year and then you should see pricing come down considerably.
For discount test strip pricing, please check out our pricing comparison page.
The odd thing about the OneTouch Verio IQ is that is uses TWO different control solutions: Level 3 (mid) and Level 4 (high). Here is what the company says about the two solutions:
Each level of control solution has a different range to help check if your blood glucose meter and test strips are working together properly. Each vial of test strips has both OneTouch Verio Level 3 (Mid) and OneTouch Verio Level 4 (High) Control Solution ranges printed on its label. Compare the result displayed on the meter to either the OneTouch Verio Level 3 (Mid) or OneTouch Verio Level 4 (High) Control Solution range printed on the test strip vial, depending on the type of control solution you used.
I am not aware of any other meter that requires two different control solutions. I am not sure if this is a good thing (maybe it increases meter accuracy) or a bad thing (maybe they could figure out how to make the product into one control solution). It is a bit of a pain, but again, I wouldn’t let this be the deciding factor regarding whether to buy the meter or not.
Other Considerations:
This meter uses the same data management software as the other OneTouch glucose meters. The nice thing about this meter is that you do not have to buy the data cable to download results to your computer. Since the meter can be charged from your computer, they include a USB cable already.
The meter is a no code meter and you can set the meter instructions to Spanish.
Bottom Line:
I like the OneTouch Verio IQ and would recommend it. The meter is reasonably priced and has some great features, particularly the color screen and pattern technology. The stest strips are a little expensive, but should come down in price over the next year.
Technical Information
Model | Verio IQ |
---|---|
Auto. Shut Off | 2 minute |
Battery Type | Rechargeable |
Battery Life | NA |
Alternative Site Testing | No |
Memory Capacity | 750 Tests |
Storage Temp. | NA |
Operating Temp. | 43° - 111° F |
Result Range | 20 to 600 mg/dL |
Sample Size | 0.4 microliter |
Test Time | 5 seconds |
Weight (battery) | 1.66 oz. |
Size (Inches) | 3.46" x 1.85 x 0.47 |
Backlit Display | Color |
Warranty | 3 Years |
Coding Required | No |
Software Available | Yes |