That's great news. I am totally stumped about what my next move should be. The Vibe has some appeal, particularly if the Dexcoms are as wonderful as everyone else reports. At the same time, I can literally run my Medtronic in the dark and am leery of upsetting my applecart about that too much. I also had an interesting meeting with the local T-Slim agent and was very impressed. It's almost as if there's too many products to decide...
Amen!!!! Finally. Was thinking about switching back to Medtronic, but am not now. The color screen on the Animas is just too awesome. And the battery life using the lithium batteries is a huge difference. The best day of my life was going on an insulin pump. The second was going to Animas. Today, with this announcement is pretty close to another best day in my d life. ..
This is good news for Animas pumpers that want to incorporate a CGM into their system. For those people I am happy that they'll finally have access to this "new" technology. I use a Dexcom G4 system and I find it an awesome tool that helps me stay on track.
That being said, there are a few issues that undermine the value of this new system, in my opinion. Dexcom recently rolled out more accurate firmware (the 505 upgrade) for its stand-along G4 system. They claim it takes the MARD (mean absolute relative difference) number, an accuracy standard, from 13% to 9%. Lower is better in this case. I understand that this improvement cannot be made to the Vibe for technical reasons. Does that mean the firmware upgrade path for the Vibe is permanently closed?
Another issue I have that others may not share, is with an alarming pump buried below layers of blankets at night. I've lived with pumps for decades and have slept through hours of pumps alarming about a low insulin level or even an empty reservoir. Some light sleepers may not have an issue with this, but for me, having a stand alone receiver solves this problem.
I'm always interested in the introduction of new D-tech because it incrementally makes the lives of people with diabetes better. In this case, I question the value as the Vibe technology was introduced in Europe over three years ago and now its software update capacity seems to be locked in the past.
I'm sorry if my tepid enthusiasm puts a damper on this news. The D-tech manufacturers must understand that in the US market with the predominance of third-party payers, patients must make at least a four-year commitment to an insulin pump. Why should we make a four-year commitment to the Vibe, a technology that is already more than three years old?
For me the waterproof feature is important. As a triathlete, being able to control my adrenaline-induced spikes during sprints tris is something I want. And I don't want to waste time during the transition to put a pump. And I did try the Omnipod but I coudlnt deal with pod failures.
I will ask Animas if they will get the new Dexcom algorithm. If they don't, then that may be a deal-breaker for me. Although technically you could always use both the Dexcom receiver and the Animas pump.
Cheers,
G.
I'm still skeptical about the difference (8 MARD vs 13 MARD or something like that I think?) is that material. Super accuracy is always nice but, in the big scheme of things, a CGM is only so accurate and it's more important to have a unit that will be reliable and give you the information you need to manage things. I've done very well with the allegedly less MARDlicious Medtronic pumps but still manage to get decent results. I think this is more as a result of being aggressive and on top of my BG but 5-10-15 points is not enough to make a tremendous difference in overall control.