OK here is what I understand. These strips are not approved by the FDA for use with the Omni Pod. They should not have been shipped with my order from Edge Park.
I further understand that these strips all use the code 16. If your meter is set to 16 you should get the correct reading. These "new" part of these strips is that they use less blood which is correct they are fantastic and they all use the code 16. This is my understanding from talking to various parties.
I could swear that I had the correct code in the other day when I had all the very low readings but I have just tried the strips again and I am more confident the numbers were close to correct.
Abbott strips?? I get Freestyle strips from the pharmacy they don’t come w/my pods in the mail. Is Abbott also free style?
My son has been running mysteriously low lately but he has been doing Overrides too and I thought it was cuz of that.
Abbot Diabetes Care is the “big boss” in charge of making freestyle strips.
(like Bayer is in charge of Contour meters + strips)
Don’t worry, it took me a little while to figure it out too!
Thanks for the update.
I’m out of strips (for the most part…maybe 1 day left on the “old” strips) and my pharmacy had to special order the “old” ones from Abbott, so I’ll be using the new ones for about a week…I’ll keep you updated, and verify all my readings with a spare One Touch I’ve got lying around…
Hopefully it all works out fine, calibrating my Dex will be a total PITA, and so will carrying an EXTRA meter!
While I’m not in the same country as the rest of you (I’m in Israel), just FYI:
my local pharmacy, which provides all my diabetes supplies, told me last month that the old-style strips were no longer manufactured anywhere, and that the new Abbot strips (the chief pharmacist indeed mentioned they were always Code 16) were indeed the suitable replacement both for the OmniPod PDM’s meter as well as other FreeStyle BG meters. I’ve used a couple of vials (100 strips) of the new-style meters on the PDM with no issues.
(For folks confused about name changes, FreeStyle was always the name of range of BG meters; the company which developed & sold them was called TheraSense. It was bought out by Abbott Labs a few years ago)
I just got off the phone with Insulet Customer Support (11:30a Pacific 10/5/2010). The OmniPod absolutely DOES support use of the new FreeStyle strips. These are not the FreeStyle Lite strips–they are just labeled FreeStyle and have the butterfly and the new tip on the strip. The canisters indicate to use code 16. I called Abbott as well and they transfered me directly to Insulet.
So now I am really confused… are the butterfly strips just not approved yet …but work or are we getting bad readings from them… this is very important to know.
CORRECTION ON TEST STRIPS - INSULET IS NOW RECOMMENDING WE DO NOT USE THE NEW STRIPS
I got a follow up call tonight from Insulet Customer Support and they gave me new instructions. They are recommending that we do NOT use the new FreeStyle strips and that they do NEED FDA approval. Please verify this on your own. I have asked Insulet to put a notice on their website.
Insulet and Abbott have completely botched this up and neither one seems to have a handle on it. What is worse is that neither of them seem to be working with the insurance companies–who are actually distributing the new strips. I am sorry that I have added to the problem by repeating their misinformation.
I called Omnipod last night too. The woman that I talked to said that they can not reccomend the new strips with the little butterflies at this time. The FDA has not aproved them for the use w/the pdm…
However… I have been testing on my own the effectiveness of the strips using the control solution…they seem to be fine. So I am going to continue using them. She did suggest if I was to keep using them that I remember to check any abnormal highs or lows on another meter and to use the control solution. She just can’t come right out and say…they are safe. Infact she also implied that the pdm might need to be recalibrated for the new strips at some point… wow what a pain in the tookus that would be.
She said that some people are having a tough time getting the old strips from their pharmacies but that there are still plenty of them out there to be had. I am not sure that I could just turn in my already opened boxes of strips anyway for an exchange. My son likes the new strips sooo much better… I am just going to keep an eye on the numbers if they look fishy. Crazy…that in the mean time… this is one more variable to throw into the pot of the Diabetes Soup! If there weren’t enough already!
MAJOR CORRECTION: I just got off the phone with Abbott… they took the lot number from my strips…my new ones w/the little butterflies…and told be that they were fine for the PDM as long as they just say “FREESTYLE” only on the canister! If they say light…not approved but the regular FREESTYLE ones …even w/ the butterfly ARE fine for the PDM… so after that call I called OMNIPOD back and they are also “waiting for this same information” to be verified by Abbott by their “higher up the food chain” folks.
Please call Abbott or Omnipod for yourself…the more people that hear this the better…make sure I am right here before you trust this… but this is what I was told just 10 minutes ago! Yay… the butterflies are back in business!!!
I’ve been going nuts for a couple of weeks now, using the Freestyle strips with the butterflies on them. When I started with Omnipod, the strips that came with my kit worked fine. Then I filled a prescription for a 3 month supply. I tried running a bg on myself on 3 meters at the same time: 1) the Freestyle that Insulet sent with my kit, 2) my old One Touch Ultrasmart, and 3) the PDM. The first 2 matched almost exactly. The PDM was about 50% lower. Running control on Freestyle and PDM, the Freestyle gave me 103 (within range), the PDM gave me 62! Insulet sent me a replacement PDM, but I get the same scenario, it’s way low compared to my other meters. An Abbott rep yesterday told me to use strips that DON"T have butterflies on them, and have a blue label on the bottle, and are NDC# 99073-0121. When I then checked my “butterfly” strips, they showed this NDC. So, I guess the glucometer in the PDM is just for show, for now. I’m back to my OneTouch.
In my (short) experience, the butterfly strips are about 50% off with the PDM, compared to using them with an actual Frestyle, and compared with my OneTouch. They consistently read way too low.
I recently received the box with butterflies from my local pharmacy. (1/2 my order was the “old” style, 1/2 the new) On the box it says for Freestyle systems only. Which is the same thing my old box said. I have been using them, and then using my previous strips and finding that the butterfly strips read consistently lower than the previous. Not much, 10 maybe.
Of course, two days ago my PDM started acting funny. Not turning on, or suddenly turning off, and when it turns on always going to the blue green start up screen. I called Insulet this morning and they are overnighting a new PDM. We’ll see how the new PDM reacts to the butterflies…
If anything… I think that the new strips seem more accurate…that might be why they show lower…maybe the others were off by that much?
We had a pdm that did that too…then finally it just quit… glad you are getting a new one before that happened.
well folks i thought something was up i just got my omnipod on last week and got my strips at walgreens,do i really need to take the ones with the butterfly on it back or can i just keep using them,please somebody let me know because as a new person i am getting confused with all this new stuff to learn.thanks derry
