After the disappointment in the amount of time it took to deliver the Aidex, and finally getting started with it, these are some of the thoughts around the challenges of living with it in everyday life.
Instructions. Or not
The Aidex describes itself as a factory calibrated sensor. But the Accuracy study highlights the fact that it can be calibrated, and that makes it better than just a factory calibrated sensor.
Then you try and find guidance on calibration. Sadly, this is where the anomaly that is the Aidex highlights itself very clearly.
The instruction manual simply says you can, but make sure glucose levels are steady. If you ask GlucoRX, they point you at the Aidex Academy, online. This is a third registration for Aidex. One for the shop, one for the app and a third for the set of training information and additional instructions.
Not cool GlucoRX. I don’t want to have to go to three separate places for information, especially not when it’s about calibration. And to top this off, the accuracy study highlights that having the option to calibrate makes the system more accurate, but then you don’t have any recommendations as to how one should calibrate it to help with that.
And let’s not discuss the issues with the sensor falling off early. Oh, go on then, maybe we should.
Four days in, the overpatch came off. Five days in, I woke with the sensor hanging off. After a call with the customer service line, I was told that there were additional instructions for sensor application that were distributed by email, that I couldn’t possibly have known.
This doesn’t seem like a sensible business model, especially as failing sensor sticky pads cost GlucoRX to replace every one of them. Why isn’t this information in either of the other three sources of information they provide. The instruction manual, the sensor application guide in the sensor package, and the academy.
This really needs sorting out. It just doesn’t work to have so many different places, each containing partial information. It will cause and does cause issues.
And it’s so easily remedied. One very large cross against the Aidex.
Data Storage
Once again, inconsistencies arise all over the place. In the instruction manual, we’re told that all uploaded data is shared aith Ali Baba Web Hosting. In China.
On the website, it’s AWS.
On discussion with GlucoRX, they confirmed that AWS is correct and the manual needs updating.
Indeed, it does, because the manual tells you how to set up sharing, but as I’ve mentioned before, that’s something that’s not in the app.
Accuracy
On my first day, versus 10 finger pricks, I had a MARD of 23%.
Over the first three days it remained at around 20%.
The published comparison to fingersticks is 10.8%.
To get anywhere near that value, it would to be, on average, around 8% out for the remaining 13 days.
I also haven’t mentioned that it missed every single glucose level below 4 over the first two days, which isn’t a great performance. It also missed a lot of the variation. A great system to get amazing flat lines, regardless of reality.
To better measure this, I’m trying again with the replacement sensor, which just happened to get started at the same time as a Dexcom G6 sensor. We’ll be following the fingerstick protocol in the accuracy study to see if it gets anywhere close.
Customer Service
On Twitter? A bit too ready to revert to DM, when answers would be useful in public.
On the phone? Very helpful indeed and quick to address the issues. They did a good job.
Overall first impressions?
A company that has little experience with CGM and the demands it places on them from users, trying to break into a new market, with a cheap Chinese product.
That’s what it feels like.
I’ll pass full comment on the product itself after a full two weeks with it, but given experience of Dexcom, and if the One is the same price on the prescription tariff as the Aidex, I’d choose the One at this stage.
Sorry GlucoRX. You’re miles behind with loads to do to catch up. And we’ve not really discussed the quality of the sensor and the app… That’ll will be coming soon.
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