If you have diabetes and social media, it’s unlikely that you haven’t been assailed by viral marketing offering you the opportunity to sign up to a giveaway of the new SiBionics CGM system. This is the same company that makes the Continuous Ketone Monitor I tried over the summer.
Now, there’s a reason why they’re giving these away. That’s because they can’t sell them as they don’t have the appropriate licensing in place, and by that I mean a CE mark. They are apparently trying to get that sorted out.
Like many others, I took them up on their giveaway and am going to give it a Diabettech run for its money.
The kit
Similar to the Libre, the system comes in two parts that are clicked together and then stuck on the arm to insert it. The insertion process is identical to their CKM.
Similar to the Libre, you push it down against your arm, but in this case it has a button on top that you press to release the mechanism, rather than automatically releasing, as can be seen in the following video.
It also comes with an overlay patch that contains a plastic ring to make it easier to locate, and that is presumably to stabilise the basic patch. Again, the following video shows me applying it, incorrectly but successfully.
Those are the parts and application of the sensor. As I mentioned more than once, the application process feels very similar to that from the Libre.
The App
The app is one of the better ones that we’ve had from one of the newcomers in the CGM world.
The standard view this one provides shows glucose data for the last three hours, with six, twelve and 24 hour options available. There are also daily reports showing Time in, above and below range, the daily trend, AGP reports which also include an overlay function which gives a day by day comparison plus data input functions and on the Profile page, there’s a way to export blood readings. The video below walks through the app.
Performance data?
A few days into this sensor, it’s looking a lot better than I expected. It’s closer to the few fingerpricks and Dexcom data than I expected for a new entrant.
We’ll see how it manages over a longer term, however, given the rumours flying around as to the origins of the technology and the similarities already mentioned in this article in terms of application, it perhaps shouldn’t come as an enormous surprise if it does work fairly well.
We’ll see how it gets on in due course!
Looks interesting but I am concerned they think they need an overlay patch.
That can increase chance of reactions by holding adhesive vapour in to sensor.
It would be interesting to see a direct parallel sensor comparison such as done by Juggluco for the 12 hours after changeover. Do they allow any extension beyond the 14 days? Would have been easy to do. ….
Nobody knows. They aren’t allowed to sell it in Europe yet so it’s all free trial. Dexcom have sold overlays for years. It’s worth noting that the patch is a breathable material so it’s not like putting tegaderm over the top.
First up I wanted to try it out. I’ll be running side by side with Dexcom in due course.
Very tempted to do a parallel trial with Libre. Will be running out of space on arms.
It will be running alongside Dexcom and another sensor later in October for a proper test.
It will be running alongside Dexcom and another sensor later in October for a proper test that I’ll put the results of up on here.
Any word on whether they have any links for loop systems?
Given that no-one can buy them yet, so noone has any experience of using them or communicating with them, no. Not yet.
Noted Remote view button
Oh this has gotten my technology radar going. Thank you very much for writing about your testing out of this new kid on the block. I actually just wrote an email to the company seeing if … psst … can I have a new toy to play with like Diabettech did (I included your blog link to them) – and see what their reply is since I’m a semi-test guinea pig of many devices, insulin, etc. over my almost 60 years as a Type 1 Diabetic within the Diabetes Online Community. Anything to make our lives better, with less complications is the way to go, and of course, if their CGM is less expensive for those of us who pay out of pocket for our technology – even better!
If a free trial how many do you get?
28 days supply. In other words, two sensors.
any updates on the accuracy?