Good pointing that out. I wasn’t expecting it. My draw to the 670g was auto-mode.
I had a chance to wear it and my Dexcom simultaneously. I realized quickly how much I missed not being able to turn my wrist as see what my CGM is saying about my glucose level. Granted, I was wearing the Dex at the same time, so it was an existential dread. However, it’s a good enough reason for me not to go running back to Medtronic until things settle down a bit.
lack of mobile integration is a huge disappointment. probably the one thing that will keep me from pulling the trigger on the 670g. i refuse to pull my pump out every time i want to check my bg.
Interesting to follow the discussion. For ~25 years I was able to tell you my BC +/- 10 points, and most times within 5 points. I used to play a game with the nurses/specialists when they did a blood draw. I always won. 
But as age crept up on me, all I can tell these days is “I feel like poop!” I don’t particularly need to know my BG real time as I still manage it via carb counting. I have had a massive set back when I moved to a Tandem pump back in April and was suffering from their horrible quality control with Unomedical. But since I’ve dropped the pump after fighting with it for three months, I have my sugars under control again.
Update to my roll out experience. I just got lied to.
I got a call from my rep saying I was out of warranty and due to upgrade. I said sure let’s move up to the 670. I’ll take it whenever they come in, because I know they are rolling out in waves. I got a call about a month ago saying it was in, but the CGM was back ordered.
So the pump came, and then 2 weeks ago they called to check on me and let me know that a shipment of CGMs had arrived and I should get mine within a couple of days and that I should get a call from a CDE for training too.
I got a call from the CDE and scheduled the training for next Tuesday. Finally, today I thought I need call and check on the shipment to make sure the CGM didn’t get lost in the mail.
The customer service rep said that I wasn’t supposed to receive the CGM until Nov, no one had filed an exception for me and the training would just be for the pump and since I didn’t upgrade to the 630, I didn’t have priority. He was sorry it wasn’t communicated properly to me. (I wasn’t due to replace the pump through insurance until this summer, so I didn’t pay for the 630 out of pocket. I waited until I was insurance eligible.)
I said, “Why did I get the 670G pump in the first place? I have a 530 and I have sensors that go with the CGM for it. I don’t want to discontinue using a CGM to switch to the 670G without the sensors. And don’t I only have 60 days to return my 530 for a partial refund? I should have never been shipped this pump without the CGM to go with it. That’s a waste of resources for you and for me. And why was I contacted for a training if I can’t use this pump… and will need a second training for the CGM when it arrives anyway?”
So the two reps are going to work together to see if they can get their supervisor to allow me an exception because of their mistake. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a flat-out lie. I’m so angry right now. I’m shaking.
OMG. I’M SO SORRY. I know I didn’t have anything to do with it. I know first-hand the stress that comes when something goes wrong in relation to my diabetes, so I have an idea of the stress and anger you’re feeling right now.
I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for you that they fix this quickly. It was THEIR error, so don’t back down should you get a less than satisfactory result.
For me, it was just easier to walk away until things leveled out, which they’ve yet to do, so I’m still on MDI.
I hope they fix this for you ASAP!
I am completely frustrated and I do not yet have the 670. I cannot get anyone on the phone at Medtronics to even finish the order. I am done with this. I am going to keep my revel pump and use the dexcom cgm. It is incredible to me that a company launches a new product and has no one available to speak to about it. I have left 11 messages and still nothing. Wow!
Last February I decided that I needed to replace my 4 yr old Medtronic pump as I was going to lose insurance in two months. I called and left so many voicemails, I lost count. I finally received an email from their sales group after I had already purchased the Tandem T:Slim. I replied that they need to inform their management team that they are losing business faster than then can replace it due to poor call forecasting and staffing.
Never heard from them again. My wife’s many years Pharma Benefits experience would prepare her for that job, but while she’s job hunting, they haven’t listed a single role in their Tempe, AZ office. Looks like they are cutting to the bone and it’s killing their sales.
They’re definitely short staffed.
I got into a preview, so getting the pump was really easy as they were in direct contact with my medical team. However, it still took me a bit of time to get a session with a Medtronic nurse for training. I almost went rogue since I’d worn pumps before, but my medical team freaked out. I told my doc that if I do decide to wear the 670g again, I’d definitely stay in manual mode for awhile.
There were also the other errors that I mentioned above. It feels like they rushed this to market when the FDA gave them approval earlier than expected. I hope for the sake of everyone wearing it that they get it together.
Sucks for them. I really do hope that Dexcom and Tandem or another pump manufacturer come out with a closed-loop system. I know that right now there are no studies, so it’s going to be a wait for competitors. 
@Regina - hopefully you will be pleased with the news that Tandem is now enrolling patients for a trial. I know we are happy to hear this. There currently is not enough competition in the pump marketplace.
“Tandem Diabetes Care®, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNDM), a medical device company and manufacturer of the only touchscreen insulin pumps available in the United States, today announced enrollment of the first patients in an at-home pivotal trial for its t:slim X2™ Insulin Pump using Tandem’s predictive low glucose suspend (PLGS) technology.”
Estimated Enrollment: 90
Anticipated Study Start Date: August 2017
Estimated Study Completion Date: November 2017
I think this is the equivalent of the mini med 530, not a typo, with a
better sensor. Seem to have years to go to catch up, or am I missing
something?
Well, to be honest, auto mode is amazing. I loved that. I just hate the Medtronic sensor. I’m not sure it’s worth all the trouble, to be honest. I think it’s different if your A1cs are really high. My number is in the low 6s. Not perfect, but that’s not bad.
Wouldn’t be great if all the corporate crap could be set aside and whatever pump you choose could read from whatever CGMS works best for YOU? Well I can dream…
I’ve been on Medtronic pumps for over a decade, I’m on the 630G now with the 670G also strapped to my belt testing out it’s sensor. Insulin delivery on the 670G is disabled. I’m also wearing the Dexcom G5 so I can compare the two. So far I’m very leary of letting the 670G dose insulin based off of it’s sensor.
The G5 provides very accurate readings over a week, the Guardian does not. The Enlite doesn’t either, however the Guardian sensor does work better for me than the Enlite…but not as well as the G5, or the G4. Not even close.
I’ve attached a few photos showing the differences you should come to expect. Never posted photos here, so my apologies if they are skewed, too large, rotated, etc.
…and while I’m writing this I get “Sensor updating this may take 3 hours”, on day 3 of the sensor. I know where this is headed.
I know! It would be a world where the ideal…wait, no. If it was a world where the ideal happened, we’d all wake up without having type 1 diabetes. 
Yeah. That was my thing. I’m completely spoiled by how reliable my Dexcoms have been over the years. I started with the G4 and am now on the G5 system. The fact that it talks to my iWatch and iPhone is great. I’ve finally gotten used to using my iPhone as G5 central: meaning I calibrate via the phone vs. via the G5 receiver. (That took awhile for me to snap out of as I’d had the G4 for about 3 years.) If I decide to try the 670g again. I’d try to wear the G5 too. I love being able, in most cases, turn my wrist to see what my CGM has to say about my glucose level. When I was wearing the 670g and asked my doc and Medtronic folks, the answer was either “don’t count on it anytime soon” or “they’re looking into it”. That means hurry up and wait.
My frustration with the 670g: their sensor set up and how it worked. I won’t recap all of that here, but it was a sensor failure and a call to their support team that had me simply stop wearing the 670g and go back to MDI. I’ll try it again once I’m employed, but the 670g is too much of a frustrating crap shoot when other aspects of life are also unpredictable. I’m sure the technology will get better, but it will take them some time. I do hope Dexcom gives them some competition in the closed-loop space. It’s needed because their CGM is so much better. I mean you can dose off of G5 readings now with the FDA’s approval. Then again, the FDA approved the 670g in spite of their clunky CGM set up. 
I do hope others have better experiences.
No worries. Thanks for posting the pics and showing us what you’re seeing.
Uh oh. From my short time on the 670g, it means you’re heading to failed sensor land. I hope it can save itself, but I’d not bet on it.
Yep, Dex is much better. Also the reason why I think that I will stick to my DIY Loop (just purchased another old 722 pump as backup) rather than jumping onboard the 670G.
Just imagine if Dexcom would decide to make an insulin pump!
Can anyone confirm if the glucose sensors can theoretically be reused with the 670, or if something is in place to make them a once only use?
I’ve asked several reps and they won’t answer me. I’ve ever tried rephrasing to ask if I can restart the sensor if I get a really delayed wetting in period from the sensor… They keep requoting the same FDA ruling that they can’t defer from.
I’m not asking for their permission to perform open heart surgery on myself. I’m just trying to find out if they’ve installed any kind of lock on re-using one as if it were new.
Anyone?
As far as I know, nope. It’s a totally different system. Maybe some who’ve worn the Medtronic CGMs longer would know.
Actually they can deviate from the canned script. It is a company choice. There are many ways to put forth a message. For example, here is Kevin Sayer (CEO of Dexcom) talking about the similar concept for Dexcom. This is from the 2017 First Quarter Earnings Call on May 2, 2017. He is speaking about the G6 which has been submitted to the FDA but not yet approved and released to customers. He is discussing the sensor for the G6:
“Well, the 10-day life for G6, the way G6 is configured, there’s not a hard shutoff on G6, as we are filing it at this point of time and we will evaluate that hard shutoff up feature going forward. We all read the blogs on our system. And every time I get on the DexCom G5 user group, pretty much every night, somebody says, hey, I just got my DexCom and I wore my sensor for two weeks, how much longer is it going to last and what do I do to make it last longer? And then you read – the last couple of weeks ago, I heard somebody said, yeah, I get 48 days for each of my sensors or seven weeks per sensor, and here is all the things that I do.”
I once got a 24 day run on the first generation of medtronic sensors. Gen 2 were way way shorter, and this is where my fears lie, as they advertised them as running for twice as long, doubled the price on them and halved the box size because they were FDA approved for 6 days instead of 3 for Gen1. This is a sales angle. Nothing more.
I remember at the time, they were buying back the gen 1 sensors and telling people not to use them on the new pump.
Of course I did as I had a load of them left, and they ran fine… In fact I recall the software was a little more stable, and with the stability of the sensor itself, those gen1’s ran better on the second generation of pump than it did on the first.
My fears, and my unanswered question with this latest revision is, not only are the new sensors/system any good, but did they lock down that ability to re-run them, or start them again if they hit any multitude of problems that this very physical interface can.
It isn’t purely a cost thing for me. If one is running well, why the hell rip it out before it’s done running well, only to replace it with an unknown commodity that may only make it to day 3 before losing the isig?
I’m finding it a little odd to not be able to find out one way or the other.
No one here who has tried one has had reason to ever re-start the sensor?
And, thank you Tim. I’ve been on the edge of jumping ship from medtronic for a while. I like how the pump is integrated with the glucose sensor, but the twitchiness of them is hard to live with.
If anything they should be embracing people like me. People like me could help them understand what about their technology is failing and what users want.
Telling them what they want doesn’t usually end very well.
Are their any waivers to sign before they’ll allow you to purchase this system?
Leaning a closed loop on such a flimsy testing system sounds very much like you’re going to have some legal issues. A lot of them.
Rob.
