If they were making an honest effort, I think the baselines of the system would be better. I’m not using anything that I dont trust the hardware. Hardware is the most basic, fundamental piece. If that doesn’t work, then the rest doesn’t stand a chance.
While I am no fan of Medtronic at all, I think they were held back by the FDA here. Remember, this is still new technology. The FDA probably demanded extremely conservative behavior from the 670g’s loop algorithm. Now that there is some real world experience with that tech, the FDA may be okay with greenlighting less conservative algorithms.
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By all accounts the 670g was approved significantly faster than expected.
I saw no indication it was the FDA causing problems.
that seems quite speculative to me. Do you have any knowledge of something that went on with the FDA approval process that led you to that conclusion?
This kind of sounds like the iLet pump that is still in clinical trials. It also will handle highs and lows, turning up or down the insulin levels. And there is no carb counting. In many of the talks I have been at or listened to, you just tell the pump whether it is a small, regular or large meal. The pump will learn over time what a “large” meal for you is and make adjustments as it learns more about you.
I have been waiting for a very long time for this one and while I wait and dream, I use my very nice and easy to use Tandem IQ. I know one day they will figure this out.
Even though I’ve spent most of my time with diabetes using Medtronic MiniMed pumps, even using an old one now, I can tell from lurking in the comments of threads like this, here and elsewhere, that I would be tortured letting go of my levers of influence to drive my BG line. I’m sure I wouldn’t have 1/10 the patience needed to stick with a system like the 670G.
I do think the DIY looping community, particularly Tidepool Loop, will be the driving force of automated systems going forward. Medtronic will be facing competition from many directions including, Tandem, Insulet, BetaBionics, and Bigfoot in the next 12-24 months.
It’s hard for me to believe that 157,000 people have adopted the 670G! It just shows how excited people are in general to hand over some of their diabetes burden to an attentive, unemotional and never-sleeps computer. I know that Med-T has disappointed many people with its direction but there sure are a lot of otherwise happy users.
From my perspective, as an early DIY user, once people get a taste for better results with less effort, they will be hooked. Medtronic will be challenged going forward. We will have more choice and who can disparage that?
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84,000 active users on Tandem as of the end of 2018.
Competition might be moving quite a bit faster than Medtronic had counted on.
2020 is starting to look like quite the year for new technology. Interesting to see how many companies are able to get a product launch in 2020.
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My order is in with Tandem. Just patiently waiting.
I wonder how much of this is physician driven. I know some are Medtronic only, or they rely more on medtronic reps. I only learned of non medtronic pumps when I joined doc.
Have you ever used Fiasp?
I know not everyone finds Fiasp as great as I do, but with Fiasp the only time I can pre-bolus at all, or have any trouble covering meals is in the morning. Any other time of day a pre-bolus will make me go low. Quite often I have to bolus as I’m eating. Sometimes immediately after eating, and sometimes I use an extended bolus to slow the insulin down.
Using Humalog and Apidra, I absolutely had to pre-bolus, often 30-45 minutes before eating. Fiasp has totally changed that for me, and I think for many others.
If even faster insulins come out in the next few years, I think it would make these hybrid systems more effective (with an accurate CGM, of course).
Agreed, faster insulin (especially faster to stop lowering bg’s) is needed for closed-loop. I’ve never used FIASP.
Thank you for putting your views on it into words. (And I am NOT being sarcastic). I find it a truly interesting outlook on it.
Medtronic’s goal has always been an artificial pancreas. Since everyone needs their pancreas, the only pancreases available for transplant are from those who are deceased. Those can be hard to come by.
With each step Medtronic has been trying to get closer and closer to achieving their ultimate goal (an artificial pancreas). I have thought of the 670G as inching closer to that goal. I think for it to be a true “artificial pancreas” it would have to work just like a biological one in which case no human input would be required (though I don’t know if they will ever reach a point of “no” human input).
I had never looked at it from the point of view you expressed. Extremely interesting.