This medical device design expert’s family conducted a group trial of Dexcom Stelo and Abbott Lingo CGMs.
“Did you say you are now wearing a CGM?” my 78-year-old father asked me one day. “If so, what brand do you think is best for me to try?”
My dad wanted my opinion because I’ve spent nearly 20 years working in the field of diabetes, most recently as Vice President of Behavioral Sciences at Tandem Diabetes Care, a company that makes automated insulin delivery systems.
My work is hands-on and centers around user experience research, human factors testing, and design strategy. My teams make sure these devices are as useful and usable as possible. While I don’t have diabetes myself, I’ve tested nearly every prototype and commercial version of insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) developed in the past seven years.
Over the-counter CGMs are the latest digital health wearables making waves in the U.S. market. Both Abbott and Dexcom have been serving diabetes communities for a long time, and 2024 marked their entry into the consumer space.
My dad was keen to try a CGM and wanted to give one to each person in our family. So I told him the Abbott Lingo and Dexcom Stelo were both good options for people who are not on insulin but want to track their blood sugar, and neither requires a prescription.
This started my clan’s month-long collective experience using CGMs. Half of us wore Lingo and the other half wore Stelo. My dad wore both simultaneously to compare.

The family CGM trial
None of us live with diabetes. All of us care about health in some form or fashion and have experience with technology, to varying degrees.
My father and mother are health-curious and care about longevity. My husband, sister and brother-in-law (ages 43, 47, and 55 years, respectively) care about fitness. I was surprised when each family member asked me to assist with their CGM onboarding. Perhaps because I’ve been a part of the evolution toward smaller, simpler, less expensive technology versions over the years, I knew it was going to be easy.
Neither company was set up for a bulk purchase, so each person had to buy their own. The price points were similar. One box containing two sensors (a one-month supply) cost $89. Both sensor brands were delivered within a few business days, and the unboxing was smooth enough.
Today, my dad is the only one still wearing a sensor. The rest of us wore it for up to two weeks, but stopped for various reasons.
My sister and my brother-in-law were simply bored after the first week, while my husband and mother said they “learned what I needed to learn” once their first sensor expired.
“I wore it for about 5 days but my blood sugar never got below 106 yet my finger stick readings kept showing sugar levels in the 80s” said my sister. “The trends day-over-day were the same, so there wasn’t really more for me to watch … and I questioned the accuracy of the numbers. I’m glad I tried it though.”
“I seem to be processing my sugars okay,” my husband said. “Not sure it’s worth wearing it anymore, the trial period was enough.”
Finally, my brother-in-law and mother said they appreciated seeing a visual expression of their blood sugar and how it changed due to certain meals and activities.
“But the process to get started needs to be simpler and explained to me better,” said my brother-in-law. “Also, a summary button that described my results and specifically what they mean might keep me better engaged — along with some kind of factor score. It’s just data without really understanding. … If it could tell me how I could improve, how I could be better for the benefit of my health and fitness goals, that would help.”
For these family members, the CGM experience needs to provide more personalized context in order to be useful.
For my dad, he said the experience was OK. He wants to wear it a bit longer and then maybe wear it on and off.
And that is the big opportunity for digital health wearables: intermittent use.

Design for intermittent use
A behavioral pattern is intermittent when it occurs with breaks or pauses rather than on a continuous schedule. An intermittent behavior happens over time in a start-stop fashion.
Most humans engage in health intermittently. But most digital health companies design for continuous engagement. “Continuous” is even in the name of these glucose monitors. And thank goodness for that because continuous glucose monitors were originally designed for type 1 diabetes patients, people who require constant blood sugar monitoring. However, anyone with pancreatic function, even if living with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, will not wear a CGM continuously.
My dad decided to stick with the Lingo because he can buy those sensors as needed when needed, whereas Stelo requires a subscription.
“The glucose response is part of checking my metabolism,” he explained. “That leads to knowing what foods lead to what glucose responses. I am on the pathway to learning that. Once I understand that, I can set up a good plan.”
“I don’t have diabetes, so I don’t need constant monitoring,” he continued. “But periodic monitoring can keep me on track (with reminders that added sugar is the enemy). It can also signal any prediabetes that tries to sneak up on me, or any unsuspected change in pancreatic function as I age. I will be watchful and use my CGM, probably quarterly at first, then we’ll see.”
So, how might we take a machine that is designed for continuous use and make it useful and usable for intermittent use?
The companies that figure this out will be the ones that win over time.