Finally, competition in the tubeless pump market!

Hello Fellow Omnipod users,

The Solo Insulin Pump website went online this morning. Solo is manufactured by Medingo and will provide the first competition in the tubeless insulin pump market. It’s got some exciting and interesting features including the ability to disconnect from insulin and to manual bolus (in a crude 1 unit function but could still be useful). Just to put this out there I love my Omnipod and just started on it back in February so I won’t be looking to change for quite a while but I thought it was exciting to have another player on the market to drive advances in technology and customer service. If you want to check out the Solo pump it can be found here: http://www.solo4you.com/. I’m definitely going to be ordering a demo kit just to check it out!

Definitely some cool updates to a tubeless system:

-detachable pump reservoir, so you don’t have to refill a pod if you have a cannula issue
-7 color choices for the PDM
-comes STANDARD with a back-up pump in case of emergency
-lower profile than our current pods
-the ability to bolus directly from the pod!!! (my husband and I were just wishing for this feature the other day)

This is going to push competition and advancement in the tubeless market, so I’m all for it. Best of luck, solo. I ordered a demo kit just out of curiosity, too. (but like you, I’ve been on the pod since May, so I won’t be switching or anything)

Competition is awesome!! This new pump has all of the “issues” seemingly resolved. My concern is that you leave the base in place for so long increasing the chances for infection??? I, too, ordered a demo kit.

I too ordered a demo kit! Thanks for the post…

WOW!!! I love my omnipod… but i’m jealous! I already signed up to get the demo when it’s available!

Actually… I think the base is about the same as the omnipod. It sounds like there’s more flexibility to how long you keep it on, but i bet it’s still 2-5 days. It’s the actual pumping part that you keep for 3 months.

I was wondered about leaving the base in 1 place for so long as well (like Janice). I think, though, that they mean the batteries/brain of the pump portion is replaced every 3 months (the ‘pump base’) but that you’ll still move the cannula around w/ different adhesive stuff. If that’s not the case, then I’m just as confused b/c I don’t know what kind of adhesive would stick something to me for 3 months at a time w/o me ever knocking it loose/off, or sweating it off…

I’ve been on the pod for about 6 weeks…I really like it. BUT, I also ordered the “kit” to see what it’s about…
OF course if another company got involved…it would cover all the issues presently presenting with updates on these issues.

Thank you for informing us about this…

I believe that OmniPod will have to step it up. I love my pod…but this new technology addresses some of the issues that I’ve talked about with my rep…in particuar the ability to “have a base allowing you to attach and detach your pod.” Welll…here it is. Plus the ability to bolus right from the unit itself is a much needed benefit.

the base itself has buttons on it for bolusing…I’d asume similar to the quick bolus feature on the Deltec Cozmo probably bolusing in increments of 5g of carbs or something…

It sounded to me from the description like each squeeze of the buttons on the base would deliver 1 unit of insulin. Not ideal for anyone, but absolutely better than nothing.

Many tubed pumps offer this discreet feature. The Cozmo allows you to do a “touch bolus” using a side button either in carb increments or in unit increments. The Medtronic pumps have an “audio bolus” feature in 1 unit increments, as well, using the up arrow button.

I used to abuse the feature and think it can be a bad thing (called blind bolusing - as in “I’m going to eat something without testing or thinking about the exact carb amount. (press press press) That ought to be close enough”), BUT it can also be a wonderful thing. If your PDM were to malfunction, you could still receive basal AND boluses until your next pod change.

I couldn’t find the info anywhere on the website, but it is possible that you can set how much insulin is delivered with one press of the button.

That is the case with the Cozmo “touch bolus” button and the Minimed remote bolus button. I currently use the Minimed and I set it so that pressing the bolus button once (on the remote) delivers enough insulin to cover 10g of carbs. I would be surprised if this was not adjustable. BUT I DON’T KNOW for sure… just guessing.

My understanding is that of the 2 pieces, one is the brains which lasts 3 months, the other is the insulin reservoir which is replaced every three days. Because the electronics can be used for 90 days the cost structure of the device is different than the OmniPod (presumably cheaper). I would think the adhesive/cannula would have to be changed every 3 days - isn’t that an FDA standard? That’s unclear to me. Hopefully more details will be forthcoming!

Can you lock this function on the other pumps? I wouldn’t want Caleb to have this and be able to bolus indiscriminately or accidentally. The solo is not currently approved for people under 18, but I believe they intend to be.

I believe all the tubed pumps allow you to turn it on or off, just as you would other features - then it would be up to however the parents generally lock the pump settings.

Makes sense. Thanks.

With the Solo’s approval, I had an interesting thought about how the insulin pump market is evolving.

In the glucometer world, the meters are fairly cheap and sometimes free. The real money in blood glucose testing comes from the sale of test strips. Accordingly, a patient can switch from one brand of glucometer to another for almost nothing. The insurance company (which has to pay for test strips anyway) generally doesn’t care about the brand of strips used as they are all priced fairly similarly.

The tubed pump market is much different. An insulin pumper (or more likely, his or her insurance) must pay several thousand dollars for an insulin pump. If the insulin pumper wanted to switch brand of insulin pump during the typical four-year warranty period because he or she was dissatisfied, he or she was unlikely to do so because there would be no insurance reimbursement for the several thousand dollars that would be required.

However, the patch pump market is much closer to the structure of the current glucometer market. Suppose your insurance paid for an OmniPod PDM and a stash of pods, but you wanted to switch to the Medingo Solo. Assuming you have a 4-year warranty on your OmniPod PDM, your insurance will not pay for a Solo PDM equivalent until the warranty expires. But it’s not that big of a deal, because the out-of-pocket cost to make the switch would be merely the cost of the Medingo Solo PDM (which, if it’s priced similarly to the OmniPod PDM, would be a few hundred dollars). The insurance company will have to pay for pods or Solo replacement parts all the same, just like the insurance company has to pay for whatever brand of test strips you happen to be using.

Practically speaking, patch pumpers are not going to be locked into their insulin pump selections for four-year periods like tubed pumpers are.

Hahaha, 18 years or older? I am sure that that just depletes over 75% of potential Solo customers.
I am 16 by the way, and I don’t think it is much better than the pod from what I see. They also don’t have ANY users, unlike the thousands of current omnipod users. I hear that the new pod is going to be half the size of the current one, and still hold 200 units. As patriotic as I am, the company for the Solo is based in Israel…
And the selling point for me, Is it waterproof like the omnipod?

The Animas Ping also had the audio bolus thing. It can be set to deliver as little at .10 increments. We have never used it and have it currently turned off on Willow’s pump.

This Solo thing looks very promising though.