I love my CGM, don’t get me wrong. But there are times when I run into problems with my continuous glucometer, like when it falls off during exercise, or when I rupture a blood vessel and bleed all over the floor (see here — but watch out; there are photographs). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Abbott — the maker of my CGM — got word of my bloody thigh, and sent me a note asking if they could put a customer service representative in touch with me before I lost any more blood — let alone blogged about it.
I bring this up because I just had a lovely conversation with a woman from Abbott named Amy, to whom I expressed both my appreciation and suggestions for the Abbott CGM. Like, for example, a shorter calibration time, a smaller transmitter size, the ability to change batteries without changing the sensor, and my personal obsession, better adhesive. It was great to speak to someone from the company firsthand, and so I asked her how she’d recommend people get in touch with Abbott to pass along their own suggestions for improvement. She said that if you call their customer care number — 866-597-5520 — there’s an option to leave a message with your thoughts. (She also assured me that someone actually listens to the messages and writes up the comments.)
So, CGM users of the world, go forth! Tell them about your questions, your concerns, and your bloody thighs! You might not get a personal response, but I felt confident, after speaking with Amy, that they really do care about customer feedback. And don’t hold back if you’re sure they’ve heard your comments before — anyone who’s worn the Freestyle knows that it’d be nicer to have a smaller transmitter, but the more often they hear it, the more likely it is to get priority in the next version. I hope that’s in the works — and, for what it’s worth, I also hope that one of the CGM companies is in cahoots with Apple and creates a CGM/pump control system/diabetes manager that’s integrated into the iPhone. As Amy over at Diabetes Mine pointed out, that would be awesome.
