I recently switched from a Cozmo to the Ping - Here is a copy of my letter to Animas. I am curious if others share any of these concerns.
My wife and I just switched to Animas Ping and have a few comments of constructive criticism. I hope that you can forward these to the right people. I am questioning whether I want to keep these pumps or send them back.
Comments:
The meter remote is useless as I need a magnifying glass and a bright light to read. It is so much easier to use the pump screen.
The meter remote is even more useless in that it does not send the BG to the Pump
There is no control over the scroll increment when inputting the dose. It is always at 0.05. Why not offer 0.25; 0.5 increments? Let the user decide.
While I find the dose increment too fine, the major serious concern is the IC ratio is too course. I had been trying to zero in my IC ratio on my Deltec Deltec Cozmo using the Dexcom 7 and find my ratio to be 4.3; the rule of 500 would establish it at 5.5 so I split the difference and set it at 5. Why not offer a finer increment. With low IC ratios an increment of 1 is a 25 percent variation in the dose. I have mine set at 5 and have to remember to add about 12% to the dose.
Why not populate the dose when hitting get results. My Deltec Cozmo automatically populated the dose and then all you had to do was accept the results and it went. I was still allowed to manually adjust the dose. Your pump makes me redial in the results which the system already calculated. I used the alternate method for several years without a problem. It surely can’t be an FDA Issue as Deltec Cozmo already does it.
Syringe size - You false advertise it as 200. With a full syringe against a nearly hard stop I get 184 units before priming and then about 170 after priming.
Prime rate is so fast that by the time you see the droplets of insulin, another 5 to 8 units are dispensed.
Wasted insulin: It appears as though the missing 16 units of insulin are left in the cartridge when it reads zero. Why not let the pump continue to give a basal rate until an occlusion alarm is reached. If I use 2 units an hour at bedtime and go to bed with 14 units, it will alarm before I awake, my Deltec Cozmo would sound a resettable alarm, but delivering the basal in a safe fashion, thus letting me use the full cartridge. With this restriction, it appears as though the effective dose that can be administered is only about 150 units which put me in to a change every 1.5 days.
Offer the ability to increase the correction bolus based upon the BG readings with a higher correction factor at higher BG levels.
Offer a single status screen with the primary info on a home page an interesting screen would be:
Insulin remaining
IOB
Last Bolus time and amount
Why not offer a larger cartridge pump. Most other manufacturers have a 300 ml pump.
Release the color screen meter in USA post haste. Will I have to pay an upgrade charge to obtain? I have had several eye surgeries and my vision is poor. I need something that I can see.
Expedite the release of the integrated CGM system. Some news on a regular basis would be appreciated. Some info on what hardware will be used would also be appreciated. I hear rumors that the Ping remote will be a meter and read the Dexcom and others that say that it will not be a meter and only talk to the CGM and the pump. What’s the scoop? Please don’t keep us in the dark. Will the current ping pumps be compatible? Will we need new pumps? Please keep us informed.
When the screen times out, it resets to the home screen instead of where you were when it timed out. This is particularly frustrating during set up when it keeps blaring at you that the cartridge is not primed. You should have a setup mode that ignores the unprimed cartridge.
On the status screen, it will not let you go back; you must cursor thru all. On menu selections it would be nice if you could cursor from the last item to the first by going down one or from the first item to the last item by going up one.
I will post these same comments on the Animas Users page of theTuDiabetes site and will also post your replies as I am sure other users will be interested in the reply.
I’m way too new to respond to most of your comments on the Ping (using it for less than 2 weeks) and I think some of the issues would just be “what you’re used to”. But I also felt I could hardly see the numbers on the meter remote. I altered the contrast and use the backlight (especially in the evening) and that has made it much better. I haven’t had eye surgery or anything just “regular 62 year old eye issues”, but it’s worth a try.
Wow Dick, that is quite the list. I actually thought that the bg was transferred to the pump from the remote/meter. I really think that the newest Minimed is more like the Cozmo. Since you can’t count on anything these days including if and when a link will happen between the Dex and Animas pump, maybe you and your wife would be happier with a Minimed pump. You have helped me make my mind up to do that if they turn us down for the Omnipod. You do have 30 days that you can decide to send the Animas back. I think that you said that you did a trade in though, and wonder whether Minimed is still offering one for Cozmo users?
Hope all is well with you. Minimed is not an option for me. I cant read their screen, it is much worse than the cozmo; the animas screen is the best of all. Animas customer support is far superior to minimed, All i have read about the MM sensors - painful and shortlife have me thoroughly in the Dexcom camp. Just hoping that Animas will listen to users and keep improving their product. In general, I like it but with a few tweaks I might love it. I sure hope that I did not encourage you to torture your daughter with the MM sensors. When I tried the MM Sensor, the rep immediately began to look for blood because she knew they cause bleeding. The Dexcom insertion is about the same as an infusion set, I think the Color high resolution meter display is close but you never know with upgrades. Anyhow I don’t mind bolusing directly from the meter; it would be a nice enhancement to do so from the remote. Curious to see if I will get a reply from Animas.
No, I wouldn’t even consider changing from Dexcom to Minimed CGM for her. Navigator can bleed sometimes also, but we have never seen even a partial drop of blood from Dexcom. I might give it a go if Minimed ever comes out with the smaller needle that they have been promising. Melissa had a Minimed pump for about 3 years and I never had an issue with customer service. I have no problem asking for a supervisor anytime I feel that I am not being treated well by any company that I have dealings with. The Minimed pump was fine for her to see, but I do remember that the Abbott trainer had an Animas was a really bright looking screen.
Everyone is looking for something different in a pump, and something that is a deal breaker for one person doesn’t matter a bit to someone else. The increments of bolus for Melissa is something that we only have to think about at breakfast time, and Melissa can’t do the math to add to the bolus. That is something that we have missed from the Cozmo because Omnipod is the same as Animas with just full numbers, no increments.
I do think that Animas should be paying attention to what people want, but I’m afraid that most people don’t speak up, and then there are those problems with stealing someone else’s features that can land them in court for years, like happened to Deltec and Minimed.
Hi Dick,
So you went with the Animas! I’m in the process of deciding. Now with the crappy GM insurance I have to move from my Omnipod. I know with anything it will be a matter of learning something new, like the Animas rep said, any pump I go with will be good, it’s just what will I be comfortable with. Well… I’m comfortable with my pod!! But I am still interested in the Ping, problem is I only have a couple weeks left of pods so there isn’t a lot of time to wear one on trial. I can’t even imagine the insurance nightmare that will ensue if we actually decide to return it. Are you on the Dexcom? Have you talked to insurance about covering it?
Wish you could have come to our meeting today, you could have shown off the new pump! If you’re interested I will keep you informed, should have another in 2-3 months.
Dick those are all good recommendations. I do know that the issue of not being able to automatically populate the bolus dose is because Minimed patented that function so that’ll never happen. That’s a large reason why Cozmo is defunct now because Minimed won their lawsuit against Cozmo for patent infringement for this exact function.
The meter bg’s don’t show up on the pump screen but they do show up in downloads. I do not have to download the meter just the pump.
A lot of the things you requested ie color Ping, integration with Dex, etc are being held up by the FDA and the new infusion pump regs. Basically all of this technology is under new scrutiny and has to satisfy more stringent requirements. In this regard no company has the edge in my opinion and new stuff is on the slow boat to China now.
A lot of the features you like are on Minimed but it sounds like the negatives of Minimed for you outweigh the positives.
Change is never easy at least not for me. At least when I switched from Minimed to Animas it was my choice and not something I was forced into so it must be harder for you. I’ve found that the Wizard of Oz theory of diabetes management works well for me when adapting to new stuff. I keep telling myself that this Dorothy isn’t in Kansas any more and try to do my best to make the most out of the new features Animas had that Minimed didn’t. And the things I missed I either figured out another way or adapted. It’s been about 9 months since I switched and while it was a bit of an adjustment at first now I can’t imagine going back to Medtronic. And there’s very little I actually miss now. Pretty much once in a blue moon I’d like the escape button but that’s really about it.
well invite me to the meetings! and I will try and come. I am on the Dexcom - all out of pocket but talking to GM HR Maybe but not hopeful. Animas has a tradein program for 200 out of pocket so that is one way to avoid the insurance hassle . I love the dexcom and like the animas Hopefully when they integrate I will love them both.
You have quite a list. I will try to cover each point in your message by doing a cut and paste:
The meter remote is useless as I need a magnifying glass and a bright light to read. It is so much easier to use the pump screen.
SUGGESTION: Ask for “compassionate use” approval from Animas for a color remote. They have been approved and are in use in Canada.
The meter remote is even more useless in that it does not send the BG to the Pump
IDEA: Verify you have “paired the meter/remote and pump”. Your Animas Clinical Manager or Technical Support can help.
There is no control over the scroll increment when inputting the dose. It is always at 0.05. Why not offer 0.25; 0.5 increments? Let the user decide.
COMMENT: FDA screwed this pooch. The Animas wanted more user entered “defaults” but FDA in its almighty wisdom said no. We all lost. I even asked a Member of Congress to look at this one.
While I find the dose increment too fine, the major serious concern is the IC ratio is too course. I had been trying to zero in my IC ratio on my Deltec Deltec Cozmo using the Dexcom 7 and find my ratio to be 4.3; the rule of 500 would establish it at 5.5 so I split the difference and set it at 5. Why not offer a finer increment. With low IC ratios an increment of 1 is a 25 percent variation in the dose. I have mine set at 5 and have to remember to add about 12% to the dose.
COMMENT: Only you know what you are planing after a dose. You and your practitioner need to develop a recipe for you. It may be follow the pump’s programming then add or subtract a little with each bolus.
Why not populate the dose when hitting get results. My Deltec Cozmo automatically populated the dose and then all you had to do was accept the results and it went. I was still allowed to manually adjust the dose. Your pump makes me redial in the results which the system already calculated. I used the alternate method for several years without a problem. It surely can’t be an FDA Issue as Deltec Cozmo already does it.
COMMENT: This is an FDA issue after the Medtronic litigation.
Syringe size - You false advertise it as 200. With a full syringe against a nearly hard stop I get 184 units before priming and then about 170 after priming.
COMMENT: There is a way around this. Send me a private message and I will share the secret.
Prime rate is so fast that by the time you see the droplets of insulin, another 5 to 8 units are dispensed.
COMMENT: This takes practice. You can short prime and then go back and prime more if you need to. Try short bursts on the prime.
Wasted insulin: It appears as though the missing 16 units of insulin are left in the cartridge when it reads zero. Why not let the pump continue to give a basal rate until an occlusion alarm is reached. If I use 2 units an hour at bedtime and go to bed with 14 units, it will alarm before I awake, my Deltec Cozmo would sound a resettable alarm, but delivering the basal in a safe fashion, thus letting me use the full cartridge. With this restriction, it appears as though the effective dose that can be administered is only about 150 units which put me in to a change every 1.5 days.
COMMENT: Another point for a private message.
Offer the ability to increase the correction bolus based upon the BG readings with a higher correction factor at higher BG levels.
OBSERVATION: This is an advanced pump setting to activate with your doctor and the Animas Clinical Manager in your community.
Offer a single status screen with the primary info on a home page an interesting screen would be:
Insulin remaining -
IOB
Last Bolus time and amount
OBSERVATION: Insulin in the cartridge is on the “home” screen. The IOB will show if you are dosing. Last bolus is one I have asked for also.
Why not offer a larger cartridge pump. Most other manufacturers have a 300 ml pump.
FACT: There are product reports on file with FDA in MedWatch about problems with insulin being “cooked” by body temperature if left in the pump more than 48 hours. You may also see more insulin being needed as you get closer to the end of a cartridge than when you just changed your cartridge and it has fresh insulin in it.
Release the color screen meter in USA post haste. Will I have to pay an upgrade charge to obtain? I have had several eye surgeries and my vision is poor. I need something that I can see.
SUGGESTION: Compassionate use approval. Also, rattle your member of Congress (Representative and Senator) on this one.
Expedite the release of the integrated CGM system. Some news on a regular basis would be appreciated. Some info on what hardware will be used would also be appreciated. I hear rumors that the Ping remote will be a meter and read the Dexcom and others that say that it will not be a meter and only talk to the CGM and the pump. What’s the scoop? Please don’t keep us in the dark. Will the current ping pumps be compatible? Will we need new pumps? Please keep us informed.
COMMENT: The cone of secrecy is caused by a large stick held by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Leaking the information outside of an announced press release can get people in trouble for insider trading. I for one would jump on Dexcom stock when I get wind of this.
When the screen times out, it resets to the home screen instead of where you were when it timed out. This is particularly frustrating during set up when it keeps blaring at you that the cartridge is not primed. You should have a setup mode that ignores the unprimed cartridge.
SUGGESTION: Increase your time out time during your cartridge change activities.
On the status screen, it will not let you go back; you must cursor thru all. On menu selections it would be nice if you could cursor from the last item to the first by going down one or from the first item to the last item by going up one.
I will post these same comments on the Animas Users page of theTuDiabetes site and will also post your replies as I am sure other users will be interested in the reply.
COMMENT: “Circular menus” have been requested over and over again. One argument came from the Americans with Disabilities Act camp. Everything needs to be “countable” - press the down button five times, then OK, etc.
I have been a Pinger for 2.5 years and a Dexcom 7+ user for 1.5 years. Hope this helps.
A couple of things that I thought of when reading the replies here are that you can just manually prime the pump and save insulin that way. I used to do that with the Cozmo and you waste no insulin that way. Just push the insulin through the tubing with the syringe part that you keep attached to the reservoir. The cap goes between the two before you prime so that you can drop the reservoir in after the tube is filled and just screw it on. The other thing is that you do know that you can change only the reservoir and not the site every 1 1/2 days. You probably know that, but just wanted to make sure of it. Jay’s post surprised me about the Medwatch site. I don’t know who is “cooking” their insulin after 48 hours, but I can’t see how Omnipod would work if that were true. We routinely used the insulin for 6 days in her Cozmo by only changing the set at 3 days and the insulin every other time. The only time we didn’t do that was in really hot summer weather just to be safe.
We were just talking about the lawsuit yesterday and Barb and Scott hadn’t known of it. I had never known that it was the populated dose that was the issue until now.
I don’t know how long patents can last. Long time I’ve heard though. I haven’t heard about the bg displaying on the pump as a patented feature. With the Ping the bg is automatically populated. Carbs are manually entered though.
I thought entering bolus total would be problematic and have errors but that hasn’t happened. It’s all on the same screen so you don’t have to remember the total just copy it. I realize the situation for you daughter is different though.
Good luck with your appeal for Omnipod. I would think under the circumstances that continuing Omnipod would easily be medically justified for her.
If the Ping remote is used, the dose info, including the bgs and the carbs are beamed to the pump. If the remote is used to check BG, but the dose done from the pump, then the BG is not transferred and must be manually input. However others tell me that the BG is downloaded into the pump history, just not displayed. I really don’t understand how one can patent displaying the result of simple math A+B-C = dose. Minimed is moving way down on my list if they are really patenting such a simple principle and denying users a simple convenience. It surely is not Rocket Science
Thanks Diana, I guess that I really need to see the pump then. She could copy the number if it is on the same screen. I just thought of something though. How is Omnipod not being sued by Minimed?
Dick, It is funny how differently people think about things. I know someone that wouldn’t consider a Cozmo once she found out that they “stole” Minimed’s idea.
I know it makes no sense to me either. Populating a field with a sum is available on a 99cent calculator so I have always scratched my head over this one.
Because it’s a patent issue it’s also hard to find specifics. Once the courts found in favor of Minimed then I believe Cozmo settled rather than fight it and so less information gets out.
I know that when I was looking at pumps last spring the Minimed rep specifically said that filling in the final bolus dose is something they patented so therefore gives them a clear advantage over the competition. I’m paraphrasing but that’s how I interpreted the sales spiel.
I got to admit I was surprised the bg from the ping isn’t displayed on the Animas pump screen. When I was on Minimed the link meter function wasn’t worth the copay so manually entering bg’s is something I’ve done for years.
I’m not sure why it’s different with Omnipod. My guess is it’s because it’s a tubeless pump and therefore in a different category.
I always think it’s all worth looking at. Sometimes what you hear or what suits one person isn’t a problem for another. Also because you tend to hear about problems more they always seem worse than they are in reality. I know with Dex I wasn’t sure about the ??? thing but in reality it’s a non issue for me. It happens a lot less than I had anticipated for one. Plus I’m finding I prefer having the CGMS indicate that it can’t figure these readings out compared to the way Minimed did it where it just kept merrily pumping out totally bogus numbers.
Wow. I thought I was nuts so thanks for the support. My endo refused, yes refused!!! to prescribe the MiniMed pump that I wanted and pretty much forced me to purchase the Animas. I thought it would be sort of the same but it is not. It certainly does the job but it makes it very difficult. I wrote the same letter that you did with 4 pages of why this pump is poorly designed (mostly bad software). (By the way … why do you have to re-prime the pump when you change the battery??? or when you tell it you are still alive after 12 hours??) Anyway, I sent my note to my endo. I got no response and she refused to tell me why I couldn’t go back to my 8 years with MiniMed. So I called. After 8 years with her, I was discharged … fired! I am now looking for a new endo. My ex-endo really was and still is a great physician and I think the world of her … but not on this issue. I really dislike this pump. The minimed had no serious problems; this one needs to go to the ER!
Sorry for the sarcasm but at the moment I am VERY angry about this product that everyone else seems to love.
You are probably better off without the MM; what I am findingis the more I use the Animas, the better I like it; particularly the screen. I read so many posts of dissatisfied MM users and poor customer service. Like they charge for a vacation loaner pump. I found the MM too complex and the Animas is a lot easier to use. I had it programmed and up and running before I was even trained. If you do the CGM, the MiniMed is painful short lived and not very accurate.
Change is always frustrating and the purpose of my comments was to hopefully inspire someone at Animas to make improvements in the next go around. I hear that they listen to customers. Some of the issues are patents from MiniMed. I hear they drove Deltec Cozmo out of business over something as simple as displaying the dose. How can you patent A+B-C = Dose???. MM is the last pump I would use. Besides their near monopoly, their screens are difficult to read.
I have found workarounds for most of my concerns and am getting to like my Animas. A few more enhancements and I will love it!!!
Good Luck with yours and I hope that you get used to it soon. If I had a trusted Health Care provider, I am not so sure I would sever the relationship over a brand of hardware. He/she probably had your best interests in mind.
Yes, I am getting used to the quirks of the machine. I had it up and running within 1 hour of receiving it … pretty easy as was the MM. But I never had any bad experiences with MM over the 8 years except to note that after they were bought out by Medtronics, it took longer to get through their phone system. They responded very quickly with a new pump when something happened to mine. (On vacations I always take some Lantus as a back-up. I am sure that either company will ship a replacement anywhere you are.) The new screen is better than MM but the MM worked fine. Simple screens and efficient software. The MM CGMS is a different animal. I haven’t tried it but the Dex is clearly superior based on specs and things I have heard from users. What I am hoping is that the new Animas with the combined Dex will also repair the stupidity of the software. Then it would be a great product and if they do it soon, the rep sort of promised me a good price for the upgrade. The Dex is, within its limitations, a good solid product that will probably improve after some more iterations.
But can you tell me why I have to prime the A thing after a battery change? Or after a 12 hour warning asking me if I am dead? I was in the middle of a presentation when it happened the first time. I pressed the confirm button and figured I would fix it when I was finished. But in a few minutes Beethoven played again and I had to leave. It was a real problem. I wouldn’t go past 12 hours because, after all, I might really BE dead. Your observations agreed with mine. Getting used to a product doesn’t mean liking it.
But I am still interested in the Ping, problem is I only have a couple weeks left of pods so there isn’t a lot of time to wear one on trial. I can’t even imagine the insurance nightmare that will ensue if we actually decide to return it. Are you on the Dexcom? Have you talked to insurance about covering it?