I am a diabetic. What should I know before buying a home glucose monitoring device?

For the consumer, the following considerations are important when selecting a machine for home use:

- Does the machine work with small sample size? This will allow you to take less blood, thus will be less painful and will permit alternate site testing

-   How long does the test time take? You want a device which takes less than 10-20 seconds which makes it more convenient

-  Is the machine portable?

-  How expensive are the supplies- reagents and strips