I am Christel from Diabetes Strong in this video
I'm going to give you a direct comparison between the Dexcom G6, so this one,
and the Libre 2.
I've been wearing the Dexcom G6 system since it came to market and I definitely
have loved it but it also has some downsides so when I got my hands on the
Libre 2 sensor I thought, why not try and wear both sensors at the same time,
so that I get a direct comparison, and get a better feel for which system I prefer.
I'll be going over my experience wearing both products at the same time in
this video. This is, of course, my personal experience and I can't guarantee that you'll
have the same experience with the products. So let's get started
Let's talk first impressions here. So again I have both sensors on.
When I look at the size, I mean the Libre is clearly smaller,
even though a lot of this is tape, it's still smaller. It's also
flatter which is hard for me to show, I don't even know how to show that,
maybe like that. There you can see the Libre is flatter
than the Dexcom G6 so from a size perspective I mean the
Libre is definitely smaller. Pain level is the same, there was no pain, I mean it you
saw I didn't flinch when I inserted those the insertion process maybe it's just because
I've done the Dexcom so many times I just think it's a little easier that's all in one
applicator, you just have to peel off the paper and apply it. I mean it wasn't hard
to put together the Libre 2 but it was just a few more steps.
Then something else that I’m often concerned about is trash.
So this is, not including the boxes, this is the trash from the Libre 2,
see I’m throwing around, and this is from the Dexcom,
it's about the same. I don't think any of this can be recycled either.
This cannot be recycled, especially I live in California this is considered a sharps
container, in California, you cannot throw that in the trash.
You should not throw needles in the trash period,
so there's that. But overall I’m looking forward to trying this.
I say the last thing now that I remember is, you know first expression again,
this is only an hour warm-up this is two hours warm-up,
so again they're pros and cons to both system looking forward to see how it goes.
So I wore both systems, both of them are off the arm now, you see there's a
little bit of glue left, but that's about it. So let's talk about my experience.
I rated both systems based on 10 different criteria and this is the score sheet,
as you can see, well I’m giving the results upfront here,
for me Dexcom was a clear winner,
but if you want to know how I got to these results stay tuned I’m going to be walking
you through each criterion. First off how well did the sensors stick to my skin
so both sensors stayed on for the full duration of the sensor lifetime
so that is 10 days for the Dexcom G6 and that is 14 days, two weeks, for the Libre 2.
I’m not super surprised about this, as I have fairly dry skin and not a lot of body hair,
so sensors actually tend to stick on really really well. I can even have a little bit
of a hard time getting them off. So both systems get one point in this category.
Next category is whether or not you need an app or receiver to see your blood sugar
readings. When I started this experiment the FDA had not yet approved the Libre 2 app
so I had to use the receiver. Funny enough
halfway through my experiment the FDA actually approved the Libre 2 app
for iOS only. So that means that if you have an iOS phone, so an iPhone,
here in the US, you can now get the alarms and the readings
directly on your phone rather than have to use a receiver
If you have an android phone that has not yet been FDA approved
so you will still have to use the receiver
since the Libre app was not yet approved while I was doing the experiment
I only have experience with using the receiver and to be honest, I’m not a
fan of the receiver. It's another device to haul around
and I found that the battery time is fairly
short it was 24 to 36 hours meaning I had to recharge it every night.
With Dexcom, I have the option of using either the phone or the receiver or both
at the same time and I’m a huge fan of the Dexcom app I even like the receiver.
So with the Dexcom app, it's really easy to see all your readings
and you don't have to swipe like you have to with the Libre 2.
Since this review is based on my experience wearing the sensor this time and I only had
access to the receiver and I didn't like the receiver that much,
Dexcom wins this round.
Now let's talk accuracy. If this review was only based on the first 24 hours of
me wearing both systems at the same time the Libre 2 system would win hands down.
This Dexcom sensor was absolutely bonkers, it was completely off the rails,
and I had to aggressively calibrate it to get it back in line.
This is not usual behavior for the Dexcom sensors, I would say.
I've been wearing the Dexcom for a long time and usually, it's not that off,
but you know both sensors can be inaccurate the first 12 to 24 hours
so it is to be expected.
I haven't seen any good side-by-side comparison of the accuracy
for the two systems but on the Dexcom website, it does say that it has
demonstrated better published accuracy than the Libre system,
especially at critical times. But all that being said, let's look at my data.
What you see here is a comparison between my
Dexcom data and my Libre 2 data, and you see up top, we have my average blood
sugar, so for Dexcom, it had an average of 123 mg/dl for Libre 2 is at 110 mg/dl
and time-in-range below, so that means how much of the time I spent between
70 and 180 mg/dl, you can
see it's 88 versus 87. So very similar. Given the inaccuracy of the first 24 hours of, well
mainly that Dexcom for this one, but for both systems,
I pulled a week of data starting two days after I started the sensors,
and as I said as you can see the sensors perform very similar during this time period.
And that's what we should be able to expect from an FDA approved medical device,
so it's kind of nice to see. They weren't the same though, and I didn't expect them
to be but I consider them to be similar in the sense that they're only 13 mg/dl apart,
and that to me is insignificant.
I also did finger sticks throughout this little experiment,
and what I found was that on average Libre was ranging a little bit lower
than my finger sticks whereas Dexcom was a little bit higher. But it was only marginally.
On average my Libre readings were 4 mg/dl lower than my finger sticks whereas my
Dexcom readings on average were 8 mg/dl higher than my finger sticks,
so we're still down in the very small differences
and I don't think they're significant.
Given there was hardly any difference in the average glucose readings
between the two systems
and the difference that I did see was very small I'd give both systems a point for this.
Let's talk system updates. The Dexcom G6 will update every 5 minutes
whereas the Libre 2 system will update the glucose readings every minute.
Remember that the readings that you see on your
CGM are generally 10 minutes behind your blood sugar readings,
and that's because the CGM will measure your blood sugar in the fluid underneath
your skin not directly from your blood. So since
Dexcom only updates every 5 minutes, that technically means that the reading that you
see on your screen could be 15 minutes behind.
So Libre wins this round, hands down in my opinion.
Now let's talk about system alarms. So “alarms” is a feature that you can turn on
so the system will alert you if your blood sugars are traveling out of range, high or low,
or if the system is not working as it should.
The Libre alarms are really basic, you can set a high alarm or you can set a
low alarm or lost signal. You define what high means for you,
so is it 160 mg/dl, is it 250, whatever but those three alarms
are the only ones you can set and they will sound automatically, you
don't have to swipe for the system to alert you.
If you use the Dexcom G6 app the alarm features are much more refined.
You can't turn off all the alarms as you can with the Libre system, you will
always have to have the 55 mg/dl, the urgent low, turned on.
In the Dexcom app, you can set high and low alerts,
you can set fall rate or rise rate, meaning if your blood trees are rising or
falling really quickly, the system will alert you.
You can also set up signal loss or no reading.
Aside from that, you can also do customized alerts for different times of day.
For example, if you want a different alert schedule during your work hours,
or maybe overnight.
I think Dexcom is superior here so that's another point for Dexcom.
I think both systems are equally painless and comfortable to wear.
I didn't feel any of them while wearing them, I could sleep on my side not
a problem. The Libre is visually slightly smaller than the Dexcom G6,
it's not enough to bother me, might be for you,
but for me, it doesn't matter, so for this, both systems would get a point.
Next thing I looked at was integration with other systems.
As it is right now Libre 2 is a bit of a
standalone system. It doesn't integrate with any insulin pumps or insulin pens.
It will integrate with the Omnipod Horizon, once that comes to market,
but that's in the future.
Dexcom, however, is integrated with the Tandem insulin pump as well as the InPen.
So the InPen is a smart insulin pen, it's the one that I use,
I'll link to a video about that up here.
You can also see your Dexcom readings on your Fitbit, it's where I see it,
as well as on Apple watches.
I can even ask Siri to read my Dexcom readings out loud, which is super helpful
if I’m driving or I can't get to my phone. For me, Dexcom is a clear winner here,
and probably one of the main reasons why it'd be a little painful for me to
switch from the Dexcom to the Libre. In the past I've had quite a bit of sensor errors,
sensor failures, with the Dexcom system, however, I didn't have any with this
particular sensor.
I only had one Libre 2 sensor, so of course, my experience is based on, well only one
sensor, but this particular sensor was giving me a bit of a headache
in the sense that it was giving me several sensor errors,
it was giving me actually a lot of receiver errors as well. They all resolved
themselves, so the system came back online by itself I didn't have to call Abbott
to get a new receiver or a new sensor.
One situation though was where my blood sugars were dropping quickly,
so given I’m still wearing the Dexcom G6 system I could see it there. I had two arrows
downwards, and then the Libre gave me a sensor error.
That's of course not a situation where you really want to see that.
Solely based on these two sensors, I would say Dexcom would win this round,
however, given it's only two sensors and I've had issues with Dexcom in the past,
and this might just be one faulty Libre sensor, I’m just going to call it even.
Both systems offer reporting. If you use the Libre 2 system,
you go to Libreview.com and you can see all your reporting there. If you use a receiver,
it won't be uploaded automatically, you have to upload it manually using a cable.
The Dexcom reporting software is called Clarity and you can
either download the Clarity app or you can use your computer.
And if you use a receiver you do have to manually upload it,
if you use the app it'll automatically upload your data.
Both systems will allow you to download reports where you can see your
average blood sugars, your time-in-range, your daily patterns,
and your daily blood sugars. I find the Dexcom reporting a little easier to read
and a little bit more informative. For example, in Clarity, you can go and specify
time ranges, whereas in Libreview you can only choose 4 weeks.
But I have also been using the Clarity
reporting tool for quite some time, so it might just be that that's what I’m used to.
Aside from going and looking at your reports, both systems also allow you to
share your readings directly with your medical provider.
This one is a little harder to call. Both systems are good, but given that I can't
customize the reports to the same degree in the Libreview as I can in Clarity,
this one goes to Dexcom.
Finally, we can't ignore the price tags, these are expensive gadgets.
I called my insurance and they actually cover both devices at a daily rate
so for me there's no price difference between the two systems, they will both
sent me back about 70 dollars a month.
But your insurance, if you use commercial insurance, will have a huge impact on how
much you're going to end up paying. So I would suggest that you call them
and simply ask them about the price of the two different systems.
I can't tell you exactly how much you will be paying for either of the systems
but I went to costco.com, went to their pharmacy,
and I tried to look them up. So what I found was that one Libre sensor, and this is for
two weeks wear, cost about 60 dollars,
so that's a daily cost of 4 dollars and 30 cents.
On that site as well, I found the Dexcom G6 sensors, and there you get 3 sensors, each
10 days wear, so one month of sensors, for 300.
So assuming 30 days in a month, that would be 10 dollars a day.
You do need a transmitter for the G6 system as well, so I looked up the transmitter,
that was 130 dollars, so that's one dollar and 14 a day,
so that brings it up to total cost of 11 dollars and 40 cents.
So that's significantly more expensive than the Libre sensor,
again the Libre sensor was 4 dollars and 30 cents a day, whereas the Dexcom G6
sensor was 11 dollars and 40 cents. So quite a difference there.
Even though for me the price would be the same for the two systems,
I know that would not be the case for most people,
so Libre wins this round hands down.
I showed you the final score up front, but if you're still with me, let's just revisit it.
As you can see, for me, Dexcom G6 is the superior system.
This is however, based on some level of personal preference
and it's also based on me only wearing one Libre 2 sensor,
simply because that's all I had.
Thank you so much for watching this side-by-side comparison of the Freestyle Libre 2
system and the Dexcom G6 system. I hope it gave you a little bit more insight into the
systems and hopefully, you can make a more informed choice,
if you're debating between them.
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