Animas pumpers are given info to register with Diasend to download pumps and meters. Until now the tab for CGM had been disabled for me. Today I called my endo’s office and got the Clinic ID and after entering it into Diasend, I was able to download my G4 there.
Some people had mentioned registering at Diasend as an international user in order to be able to download the G4. This is a better way IMO to have your G4 info in the same place as your pump and meter info.
One thing that I really liked was the Compilation Tab. There I was able to compare the info from my meters with the info from my CGM. As much as I have been frustrated with the G4, the info matches up very well with my meters. The average glucose between the two is only different by 6 points. The standard deviation only differs by 2 points. What is super different is over 14 days I had 129 meter readings versus 3775 CGM readings.
I like the Diasend site too. It's great to be able to see the Dex G4, fingerstick meter, and pump data all merged into common reports. If you enter your meal boluses into the pump as carb boluses then then your daily carb totals are displayed along with all your other data. The only thing that's missing is exercise info.
I really like it. The reports are clean and comprehensive. And your endo or CDE can access your reports.
The big benefit that I find is that when I upload all my data to Diasend, I naturally try to influence my behavior to get better numbers. It's a little like a game, even though it's a game I'd never miss if the cure ever arrived!
Has anyone tried Diasend recently? It looks like the CGM field is disabled again. Darn it. I really wish they would hurry up and get FDA approval for USA users. It sure would be easier.
I downloaded all of my stuff tonight and hoped to find that you were wrong. I entered my clinic id# in the tab at the top under Account Administration, but couldn’t get the CGM tab activated. Total bummer. I emailed Diasend and will let you know what(if anything) I hear back from them.
I assume that I can download my Dexcom to the Dex Studio software and get some information to manually compare to the Diasend reports, but I really liked that compilation report in Diasend that compared my meters to my CGM.
Like you, I assume this is an FDA issue. The FDA must think that we’re total morons that we can’t have our own information. It’s one thing for the FDA to control devices that I treat myself with, but to without my information from me is another thing.
Right now I’m frustrated with pumps and CGMs, present and future, and having to make decisions without all of the information. I’m frustrated with the FDA. I’m frustrated with Dexcom because I seem to be one of those people who doesn’t find the G4 much better than the 7+. I basically hate the Animas Ping and worry that I should have chosen the Tandem instead. And darn it, I still have diabetes.
So it’s not just me then. I can upload to Studio but since I’m on a Mac I can’t see everything and I can’t print. At least the driver works for me. So Dexcom’s definately gone several steps backwards in terms of working with Macs. I never had any issues with DM3 on our Mac.
I’m surprised in a way that it’s taking so long for Diasend to add Dexcom to the USA portion. It seems like meters are added pretty quickly. And the Accuchek pump was just added to the clinic compatible list that didn’t take the FDA long. So why is Dexcom taking so long?
My Seven Plus was dying when the Gen 4 came out so I’m happy enough with the improvements as I would have needed a new system irregardless. I’ve seen better accuracy especially with high sugars and my sensor only had a minimal rise after taking tylenol a couple of nights too. The increased range is awesome. I have had far better results with Animas and Dexcom than I have had with Medtronic so I’m happy overall. But it’s something I wouldn’t have paid cash to upgrade for either when my insurance copay is half that price. I would actually wait a year and go through insurance instead.
Just like if Animas comes out with the Vibe this year I most likely won’t be eligible for the $99 upgrade as I got my pump before then. If I remember correctly at the time I got my pump I was quoted $299 for upgrade policy. Depending on how close I am to my warranty expiring and what insurance policy is for pump replacement, ie 4 years ok or 5 years unless pump is malfunctioning will determine whether or not I’ll upgrade. Basically when my warranty runs out in a year or when the Vibe comes out I plan to see what my options are and go from there.
I received an email back from Diasend and the response is what I expected the answer to be:
"Hello,
While Dexcom is compatible with Diasend, Dexcom is not yet supported in the US and Canada, therefore if you download that device you will not be able to see that information,
While we understand that you may have been able to see this information in the past, because it is not yet approved in North America for Diasend’s use, the tab has been disabled. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a timeline as to when this will be available to you.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."
I was impressed that they responded to me so quickly. I sent an email back to see if they can give me more info on whether it’s an FDA thing or a financial thing between Dexcom and Diasend. I would be surprised if they give me more info, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
Thank you for emailing. I’ve been impressed with Animas and Diasend customer service the few times I’ve had to contact them.
Since Dexcom has purchased Sweet Spot I hope they are not the hold up for US customers with Diasend. No one has really said what the problem is that I’ve heard, just that it’s not FDA approved yet. No one’s really said why it’s not FDA approved though.
I assume that when the Animas/Dexcom combo pump (will it be called the Vibe?) is released that there will ultimately be the ability to download all of the info to some website. As much as I hated the Medtronic CGM, their Carelink website worked incredibly well to handle and display all of the info from my pump and CGM. I suppose that’s the advantage of one company controlling all parts of the system rather than having two manufacturers (Animas and Dexcom) involved.
It's mentioned earlier in the thread, but you can also work around this restriction by registering as an international user. I registered a couple days ago and put my location as UK, and I have no problem uploading and viewing my G4 data.
The one caveat is that apparently most of the world uses MMOL rather than mgdl to measure glucose levels (multiply by 18 to get an easy conversion).
If you're not willing to deal with that, try researching which other countries use mgdl before registering (I couldn't find it in 2 minutes, wasn't willing to waste more time on it).
I had registered as an international user with one of those countries (can't remember which one) and it worked for a month. However, apparently that was a free trial and in order to keep viewing data (I use an Omnipod and a CGM) I have to have a license number (which is probably a clinif ID). Did you encounter this issue or did you have a clinic ID when you initially registered? My Endo hasn't even heard of Diasend, much less do they have a clinic ID....rural VA.
I found another work-around. It's a pain but it works for me. I registered as an international user (Germany) and can see both tabs. For me, I only am allowed to have the account activated for 30 days and then it get's closed because I need a license number which I do not have. I went through the trouble of opening a new account. I figured I'd just use a new email and download the data at the end of 30 days, so that I didn't lose it forever. To my surprise, even when I registered a new account with a new email address, there was my original data (from several months ago!). It didn't get lost! They must tag the data with the device number, so even though I was using a different account, my devices didn't change and I could see everything :) Still will have to get a new gmail account for Diasend every 30 days...but oh well...at least I can see my data...and on a Mac!
