What is a blood glucose monitor? A blood glucose monitor is a device that allows the user to test the level of glucose, a sugar used for energy, in their blood[1]. The first commercially available blood glucose monitor was the Ames Reflectance Meter.
What did the Ames Reflectance Meter do? The Ames Reflectance Meter is a device invented by Anton H. Clemens that made it easier to read the results from Dextrostix testing strips. Dextrostix are paper strips that utilize dry chemistry to test the glucose levels in a blood sample [2]. Dextrostix and the A.R.M. created the possibility of at-home blood glucose monitoring[3].
[1] Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices.” FDA, April 4, 2019. Date accessed October 29th 2019. https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/vitro-diagnostics/blood-glucose-monitoring-devices
[2] D. R. Harvey, L. V. Cooper, R. F. Fancourt, M. Levene, and T. Schoberg, “The use of dextrostix and dextrostix reflectance meters in the diagnosis of neonatal hypoglycemia”, J. Perinat Med. 4 no.106, (1976), 106.
[3] Mendosa, Daivd. “History of Blood Glucose Meters: Transcripts of Interviews”. Mendosa.com. David Mendosa, February 15, 2006, http://www.mendosa.com/history.htm.
Image: Earlier and modern-day blood glucose meters; Journal of Diabetology, http://www.journalofdiabetology.org/viewimage.asp?img=JDiabetol_2017_8_3_61_222084_f1.jpg
