Good article Alison! Is it just me or does an “Omnipod” sound like one of those baths of goo they put people in in The Matrix – they sound a bit sinister to me…
Considering that in the near future, ALL insulin pumps will be tubeless and have a integrated CGMS, you might as well swallow that blue pill. 🙂 I love my OmniPod! It’s been great especially since I can wear it on my arms. Although I haven’t been able to slow down time like Neo…
@Mark It’s strange, I never make any effort to hide my diabetes and I have no issue wearing my CGMS transmittor, but the pod at the moment is just too large for my liking. I can’t wait for the day when they all have integrated CGMS, just a shame it’s not here yet so currently there’s no choice in the market in that area.
@Tim @Alison The OmniPod really isn’t that big… Imagine slicing a large egg in half and attaching it to your skin. Just think what we’ll have in 5 years from now… (begin dream sequence) 😀
@Mark If they can get it down to the size of half a small blackbird’s egg, then I might consider it. Chickens eggs are too big to go on my arm at the moment! Even better would be a flat-ish patch.
Glad to hear that insulin pumps are progressing across the pond as well as here in the US. Alison, I’m with you on size being an issue for the omnipod. I find myself a bit irritated even with the size of the CGM transmitter for my minimed system, so I know an omnipod is not for me at this point. I call my CGM transmitter “the tick”, and if you’ve ever seen a big white cow tick, you’ll know why. But…it’s a very useful “tick”, so I also agree with you that CGM integrated with the pump is my #1 must have feature. Looking forward to everything shrinking a bit more in the future.
Is the “egg” the international measurement for diabetes equipment or something? For example, “I like this new meter, it’s smaller than a ostrich egg” or “My new diabetes equipment case is larger than four partridge eggs laid end to end”?
Hmm well I have to say I have used the old Paradigm and am now using an Accucheck, and there are differences between the two, but I love my Accucheck. My funding for the new one with remote, is in progress and I am quite excited! The have developed massively and who knows what the future will hold xxx
I think your list is spot on. However, I would also mention the bolus wizard. Do you use this? I think this is an often overlooked feature. By calculating the IOB curves for every bolus, this gives you a correction bolus which is as accurate as it can be without stacking. If you think about it it’s probably a more significant step towards a closed loop systems than the LGS in the Veo. If you are prepared to spend your day looking at the recommended correction amount based on the CGM score and giving that bolus then you have a semi-automatic control. It works even better if you increase / decrease based on CGM up/down trend.
Good point Roger, I do use the bolus wizard. I didn’t think to mention it because I think all pumps have a version of it so I take it for granted. But you’re right, if you get that set up correctly, it does make a huge difference. Interestingly it was the one pump feature I didn’t think I’d use because I’d been calculating doses in my head for so long, why would I need it? Having got it, I use it every day!
Good article Alison! Is it just me or does an “Omnipod” sound like one of those baths of goo they put people in in The Matrix – they sound a bit sinister to me…
Considering that in the near future, ALL insulin pumps will be tubeless and have a integrated CGMS, you might as well swallow that blue pill. 🙂 I love my OmniPod! It’s been great especially since I can wear it on my arms. Although I haven’t been able to slow down time like Neo…
@Mark It’s strange, I never make any effort to hide my diabetes and I have no issue wearing my CGMS transmittor, but the pod at the moment is just too large for my liking. I can’t wait for the day when they all have integrated CGMS, just a shame it’s not here yet so currently there’s no choice in the market in that area.
@Mark I’m disappointed Mark; I thought all our readers had super-human bullet-time powers….
@Tim @Alison The OmniPod really isn’t that big… Imagine slicing a large egg in half and attaching it to your skin. Just think what we’ll have in 5 years from now… (begin dream sequence) 😀
@Mark If they can get it down to the size of half a small blackbird’s egg, then I might consider it. Chickens eggs are too big to go on my arm at the moment! Even better would be a flat-ish patch.
Glad to hear that insulin pumps are progressing across the pond as well as here in the US. Alison, I’m with you on size being an issue for the omnipod. I find myself a bit irritated even with the size of the CGM transmitter for my minimed system, so I know an omnipod is not for me at this point. I call my CGM transmitter “the tick”, and if you’ve ever seen a big white cow tick, you’ll know why. But…it’s a very useful “tick”, so I also agree with you that CGM integrated with the pump is my #1 must have feature. Looking forward to everything shrinking a bit more in the future.
Is the “egg” the international measurement for diabetes equipment or something? For example, “I like this new meter, it’s smaller than a ostrich egg” or “My new diabetes equipment case is larger than four partridge eggs laid end to end”?
@Tim Actually, I’m now hungry for an omelette. 🙂
Hmm well I have to say I have used the old Paradigm and am now using an Accucheck, and there are differences between the two, but I love my Accucheck. My funding for the new one with remote, is in progress and I am quite excited! The have developed massively and who knows what the future will hold xxx
Hi Alison
I think your list is spot on. However, I would also mention the bolus wizard. Do you use this? I think this is an often overlooked feature. By calculating the IOB curves for every bolus, this gives you a correction bolus which is as accurate as it can be without stacking. If you think about it it’s probably a more significant step towards a closed loop systems than the LGS in the Veo. If you are prepared to spend your day looking at the recommended correction amount based on the CGM score and giving that bolus then you have a semi-automatic control. It works even better if you increase / decrease based on CGM up/down trend.
Good point Roger, I do use the bolus wizard. I didn’t think to mention it because I think all pumps have a version of it so I take it for granted. But you’re right, if you get that set up correctly, it does make a huge difference. Interestingly it was the one pump feature I didn’t think I’d use because I’d been calculating doses in my head for so long, why would I need it? Having got it, I use it every day!
@Roger Cor! I love it when we get geeky – IOB curves, closed loop systems, etc. – it combines two of my hobbies namely diabetes and geekery 🙂
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