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Message Contour USB Maintaining healthy blood-sugar levels is crucial for people with diabetes who wish to prevent serious medical complications, including heart disease, blindness, and poor circulation and nerve damage in the legs and feet (which can lead to amputation). Bayer Diabetes Care, a division of Bayer Healthcare LLC, is a global leader and innovator in self-monitoring solutions. Bayer introduced the portable blood-glucose meter and test strips, pioneered the measuring of glycated hemoglobin (A1C), and offered the first suite of products for managing glucose levels. The Tarrytown, New York-based business tapped IDEO to help develop the industrial design, meter user interface, and on-the-shelf packaging of its CONTOUR USB Blood Glucose Monitor. Bayer’s CONTOUR USB Blood Glucose Monitor is the first meter that plugs directly into a computer and auto-launches diabetes management software providing diabetes patients and their healthcare professionals with instant access to blood sugar data and trends to help optimize diabetes management. The CONTOUR USB meter includes Glucofacts DELUXE Diabetes Management Software on board the meter for easy viewing and retrieval of data, as well as longer-term tracking and analysis of blood glucose test results. The CONTOUR USB meter is designed for single patient home use, while the blood glucose trend information available in Glucofacts DELUXE can be e-mailed, printed or saved as a PDF file for easy sharing with the healthcare professional. Logging blood glucose data and understanding blood glucose trends is critical to good diabetes management, particularly in relation to pre/post meal status. A few of the more recent traditional meters allow logging of this information, but their user interfaces are complicated and so the vast majority of people choose to record their data in a logbook if they record the data at all. One of the design challenges for the CONTOUR USB meter was to integrate meal marking into the test process while also providing users with the ability to easily monitor their trends. After blood is applied to the strip, the meter immediately prompts the user to mark whether the reading is pre- or post-meal. By using the 5-second test time and simplifying meal marking with a simple menu, crucial meal marking data will be captured. Users can also tag results with notes such as, “activity.” Then, when the meter is plugged into a Windows or Mac computer through its integrated USB connection, GlucoFacts Deluxe, the onboard diabetes management software will automatically show pre- and post-meal trends, allowing patients and their doctors to more clearly and simply evaluate their blood sugar information. To provide more functionality and superior readability in a small form factor, a color OLED display was used. The display is extremely high contrast, providing better readability even in bright light and darkened rooms. The pixel-based display, rather than a typical fixed-segment, icon-based display allows a much richer user experience. In addition to the obvious benefits of color and screen clarity, the technology allowed us to use animation and text for a more interactive display. By using text, we are able to move from displaying ambiguous error codes to providing users with clear instruction on possible problems and solutions. CONTOUR USB is also the first blood glucose meter to utilize a rechargeable battery. Because the meter is designed for the patient on the go, it was imperative to have sufficient power to provide users with the confidence that they can carry Contour USB with them wherever they go. The meter has sufficient power to conduct 150 tests between charges—approximately one month for typical high frequency testers. Recharging takes only 2 hours and CONTOUR USB also has a rapid charge function that allows someone with low power to charge for only one minute before having enough power for two tests. Finally, the iconography on the display highlights battery status at various stages of battery strength. The meter aesthetic design was inspired from consumer electronics rather than previous blood glucose meters or medical devices. This was true for the interaction design, the physical design and the packaging. People’s expectations are set today by all the other electronics they carry with them like mobile phones or music players. The device retains the seriousness that a medical device needs, but it also recognizes that people who use the meter will expect it to be as pleasant and straightforward to use as their phone. Industrial design of Contour USB lends itself to everyday objects allowing the user a level of discretion not found in other devices in the BGM category. A lighted strip port allows users to test under low-light conditions, which can aid in discretion during testing or in situations where sufficient lighting isn’t possible. The potential for users to test more frequently in a wider range of situations is now made possible through the lighted strip port. “With the CONTOUR USB meter, patients are able to review their results with their healthcare professional during an office visit, over the phone, or via email giving them the opportunity to make treatment adjustments, such as taking action to reduce their A1C levels, if necessary,” said Dr. David Simmons, chief medical officer for Bayer Diabetes Care. The FDA-approved CONTOUR USB launched in Europe and North America between October 2009 and January 2010. http://www.ideo.com/work/contour-usb