Insulin on board

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
1

Hi everyone,

I have been on pump for 3 months and there is one thing I don't underestand: what is " insulin on board" ??

I see that sometime in bolus calculation. At first I was thought it means the amount of insulin which is still active in the body; but that's not always the case.

Here is an example :

Today I read BG of 172 at 5:40 PM. PDM suggested 2.7 units (don't be suprised, It's high because I'm pregnant) for correction which I took it. I checked at 7:20 and it's still 167!! This time PDM suggested 1.4 units showing that "insulin on board : 1.3 unit".

Could any one please explain it to me??

Thanks

2

Insulin on Board does mean the insulin still active in the body. However, as you’ve found out, it isn’t very accurate sometimes. Basically you can’t really rely on that a lot of the time. I have found that it is usually more accurate when your blood sugar is lower. Like for me a lot of the time if my blood usgar is like 110 and it says I still have .30 units in my system, I really do ahve that much in my system and my blood sugar will drop a little more. I’ve found though that whenever my blood sugar is higher it’s not very accurate and I’m not really sure why that is.

Hope that helps you some =]

3

Insulin on board is based on whatever you put in as the “insulin action”. Omnipod only considers insulin that you give as correction boluses as insulin on board (IOB). Any time that you bolus for food, it considers that you are counting all of those carbs accurately, so it does not factor this insulin into the IOB b/c it’s “accounted for” (it’s going to be “used” by all of the carbs).
In your example it suggested 2.7 units the first time. This is based on your target BG, as well as your “correction factor” (how many points your BG will drop with 1 unit of insulin). Hopefully that explanation of “IOB in a nutshell” helps a little.

It could be any number of things that caused your BG to remain at that mark instead of coming down with the first correction bolus. It could be that your insulin action is not set correctly in the pump. It could have been that your count of the carbs in your last meal was off. It could be that your correction factor is off. It could be that the pod is in a location that doesn’t absorb as readily as other sites you use. Or it could even be something like hormones playing a factor. I’m not really sure.

4

Thanks, It helped alot. I had no idea that PDM considers correction bolus and meal bolous differently.

5

Insulet does not count meal bolus as IOB when it calculates a bolus.

But there’s a screen that shows IOB, and includes both meal and correction boluses:

I don’t have a PDM here, but this is what I saw on the manual:

  1. You must first be at the Home (main) screen.
  2. Press the left soft key (Status) to go to the Status screen.
  3. Now press the User Info/Support button (the “?” button) to go to the Status Support screen.

That screen has the IOB info, and includes both meal and correction boluses.

I hope you find it.

Gil

6

I must have the wrong PDM version. If I am at the status screen and press the ? button mine just screams. And there doesnt appear to be a User Info/Support button (or I’m just not finding it).

I do think every once in awhile the IOB and ccorrection info would be helpful.

But I think I’ll just keep looking around in case I am missing it.

7

They may have changed/moved that software feature. The manual has a picture of the new PDM. Do you have the new PDM model or the previous one?

8

Yeah I think that might be a 1st gen that Gil’s referring to. B/c you’re right when you hit the ? button from the status screen w/ a 2nd gen it just beeps at you :slight_smile:

9

Interesting… the manual has a picture of the new PDM (Gen 2), but they may have changed the SW later on. Sorry…