13 May 2016
The International Organization for Standards (ISO) have made revisions to the ISO 15197 Standard for blood glucose monitoring. The revised standard will come into effect in May, rendering some meter systems as non-compliant.
Check your patients' meters
These changes are expected to affect up to a third of people diagnosed with diabetes. It is crucial that healthcare professionals take urgent action as test strips will become unavailable for non-compliant meter systems. Healthcare professionals must check and upgrade their patients’ blood glucose meter systems for compliance ahead of the implementation of ISO Standard 15197: 2013 in May.
Simon O’Neill, Director of Health Intelligence and Professional Liaison at Diabetes UK, said: “It’s important that people have continuous access to testing so they can ensure their diabetes is well controlled.
“We recommend healthcare professionals make their patients aware of the changes and put procedures in place to make sure they are using a compliant monitor so they won’t have any problems accessing strips when they need to.”
BIVDA has producedguidancefor healthcare professionals which outlines some of the changes to the revised ISO 15197 Standard and how to check if a meter system is compliant.
