I have had mine for about 3 or 4 years. I am a doctor, but work in the ER so don't use this on my patients, rather myself and family. When I first got it I tested it a few times in a row on myself and the readings were reliably consistent. I then got a lab draw at my hospital and the results were essentially the same, so it is both reliable and accurate. I always test in the same place in my house with the same ambient light (which is just enough to be able to poke my finger and perform the test) since I read somewhere that bright light could interfere with the photometric sensor. The lipid panel gives me TC, HDL, TG, and LDL along with the TC/HDL ratio. The only downside is that the strips come in a box of 15, and expire after a year or so. At $10 a strip, I end up not using them all before they expire. Not sure if they work after expiration, so its a waste. Apparently you can change the date in the meter to allow you to use expired strips but not sure how accurate the strips are after expiration. I recommend you get the tiny little plastic pipettes so as to deliver a consistent blood volume each time. So in summary, keep your ambient light consistent where you run the test, and use the pipettes to drop the blood because too much or too little definitely affects the reading. If you do that you will get accurate results everytime. Apart from that, check your BP regularly at home, eat right, drink in moderation, exercise a bit, and maybe get a colonoscopy now and then and you should live a long and healthy life.

I bought this with low expectations! I seriously doubted anyone could make a machine the size of a calculator that would check blood lipid levels accurately.

I was wrong! I love this thing! I check myself every 3 months.

It is the perfect gadget for the health freak who HATES seeing doctors for annual examinations (me)!