Review: Accu-Chek Aviva Connect

Recently I was given the opportunity to try the Accu-Chek Aviva Connect meter by Roche Diabetes. I was given twenty strips, so I used the meter until I ran out of strips, which ended up being three days, as a couple of the strips went to waste due to not enough blood.

Accu-Chek Aviva Connect

Overall the meter was great.  This meter connects with your smart phone. The benefit to that is it allows you to test and keep track of all of your blood sugars, carbs, as well as any other points you want to track throughout the day. This includes weight, meal size, insulin dosage and you can even include photos of the meals you have had.  All of this is accessible to view from your smart phone. 

Things I loved about the Accu-Chek Aviva Connect: 

+ easy setup  | I do not like complicated. If I can't set something up in minutes, I have lost interest and given up. This was super easy to set up. You basically just download an app, put in a code and you're good to go! From that point on, anytime you check your blood sugar it appears on your smartphone in the app.





+ organized | The app and overall meter is very organized and easy to understand and use.  All of the settings and menus make sense. 

+ helpful | having the blood sugars automatically go to your phone makes things easier to understand and manage.  I am able to look at my numbers in more clear and understanding way. The app also gives you options to view as a logbook, graph or statistics or table.  I was amazed at the distance in which the phone and meter could transfer blood sugars.

Things I didn't love so much about the Accu-Chek Connect:

+ big strips/lots of blood | At first I saw the strips and thought, 'oh my gosh these are ginormous!' and they are.  However, they started to grow on me, especially when having lows. They were ginormous but also super easy to handle, however, I did notice that compared to the meter I use on a regular basis, these strips are more particular about the blood you give, and how much.  I wasted a couple strips because I did not fill them enough.

+ information overload | This isn't so much a dislike, but rather the fact that all of the information that this app lets you use, I likely would not fill in. While I like the idea of tracking all things, I doubt that I would take full advantage of this meter, as I do not have the time to write down everything I eat, do, inject etc.  However, I believe there are people out there that would love the idea of micro-managing their diabetes care! 

This meter is a success in my books and I must admit, I love how technology is moving forward in diabetes to better suit the busy lives of those living with the disease. I can see myself using this meter from the mere fact that I can easily view my blood sugar trends rather than having to scroll through the actual meter or go through the process of manually uploading my meter. 

Kayla 

* Disclaimer *  I was given the Accu-Chek Connect meter and strips & also received compensation for using the meter.