Who's the fairest of them all? Good question. With a plethora of options, let's take a look to find the best meter for you. The American Diabetes Association outlined a few key points to consider when choosing a meter. Their criteria includes: insurance, budget, convenience, support and additional features.

First let's address the necessary evils in blood glucose meters: insurance. You can choose a meter only to learn your health insurance will not cover the cost of the meter, or even worse- the strips. So weed out your options first by coordinating with your health insurance provider. Next, assume that your insurance covers any meter, but only covers a percentage (if anything at all) on the cost of strips. Once you've addressed the monetary decisions you are ready to look at the fun part (I do apologize, I use the term fun loosely). These, of course, are the convenience features, including: size of the meter, size of the blood sample, countdown to result, display size, and coding for new strips. The support feature is seldom an issue, but when you need it is when you are most pleased that you have it. Does the meter come with customer support? Last, but not least- the additional feature category. Does the meter offer special alarms to distinguish highs and lows? Does it connect to a PC or perform internal trend analysis? How large is the memory? Certainly this list is not all inclusive, but will guide you on some vague considerations when choosing a meter.

Glucose meters are, quite literally, a dime a dozen. Ladies and gentleman, the world is your oyster. Make this meter market your own and take no prisoners. I know in days to come I will be sharing a few reviews of my own. Tell me what your meter can do. Tell me what it can't do. Tell me what else you want it to do. I'm sure the blood glucose meter powers that be would love to hear what tickles your fancy. Ask and thou shall receive.

Wow! Miss a week in the diabetic social parade and you miss a whole lot. It turns out, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), announced that it will be bowing-out of the blood glucose monitoring (BGM) market.

BD entered the blood glucose monitoring market in early 2003 with the introduction of the BD Logic® Blood Glucose Monitor. Distribution of BD Logic monitors will be discontinued immediately. BD is working with suppliers of other blood glucose systems that use BD™ Test Strips to continue to supply compatible meters for a limited period. To ensure that customers have sufficient time to consult with their healthcare teams and transition to new blood glucose monitoring systems, BD Test Strips will be distributed until December 2007.

The BGM industry is dominated by a handful of competitors. BD remains solidly committed to its diabetes care business. To ensure that no diabetic is left empty-handed, the remaining contenders of the BGM market are vying for your business. This is a huge opportunity for all of us to start test-driving new meters. I'm devising my list of dark horses. My top picks, so far are: LifeScans OneTouch Ultra Mini, Bayers Ascencia® Breeze (with the incorporated test strip disk), FreeStyle Flash® (ridiculously little gadget), and the AgaMatrix Wave 1 Meter. The Wave 3 looks totally exciting-but we still have a ways to go for its arrival. I'd like to know what everybody else is using these days. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.