Can’t quite believe this, but I think I’m actually going to mothball my 670G and go back to my out-of-warranty, pager-style Minimed Paradigm.
The logic goes like this:
Gave the 670G a solid try starting in late August, but finally decided back in mid-December that it was causing me so much aggravation for not much benefit that I needed to at least give it a rest for a while.
After a few months I’ve become pretty certain that the auto-mode hiatus is long-term, if not permanent.
The Guardian sensors are perfectly good accuracy wise, but such a hassle to change and insert that I’d really prefer to go back to Dexcom. I also really miss having my BG on my phone and that handy little GlucoGram widget on my desktop.
The one reason not to do that is that it will obviate the suspend-before-low feature, but I haven’t actually been using it. I get the alerts, of course, but I’d get those from the Dexcom too.
If I’m not using the Guardians, there is no particular benefit to the 670G as a traditional pump, and in fact it rather sucks in that role.
To amplify that last point: the interface drives me nuts. People talk about “too many clicks,” but it isn’t just that: it’s that after clicking all those times, when you get to the final yes/no screen, the default is always “NO.” Consider a Suspend: It literally takes 10 clicks (including opening the screen and scrolling) to get to the authorization screen, and after clicking that many times the default option is to cancel out of the operation. I mean, I get that they don’t want you to do anything accidentally, but after ten goddamned clicks I think it’s safe to assume that I actually do want to do this, don’t you? And the worst “gotcha” in this regard is the bolus process, which also has an extra confirmation screen at the end. But the thing is, it’s not just an annoying extra step (it sort of has a point, in that this the stage at which you can enter a dual or square wave bolus), it’s actively deceptive: it gives you the same beep when you arrive at the screen that it also gives when you authorize delivery. So you get that auditory confirmation signal and if you’re not paying super close attention it just sits there until it times out. And this is the real kicker: it doesn’t give you an “I’m about to time out, please hit ‘confirm’” alert. No, it bumps you out to the home screen, beeps to tell you it has canceled the whole operation, and makes you go through the entire process over again.
So I just got my Dexcom prescription renewed, and it occurred to me that really there is no benefit to using this thing at all. My old Paradigm, which I still have, may be dumb as a post, relatively speaking, but it still works and doesn’t have any of these infuriating habits.
And my wife won’t have to help me tape up my sensors or listen to me yelling “Ok YES! YES! Deliver, damn you!” at my pump any more.
Excellent explanation of the pitfalls of the new Medtronic pump interface. I’m also worried about going from my 551 (when it ultimately fails out of warranty) to the color-screen model such as the 630G (I don’t want to use the MM sensors ever again so I didn’t mention 670G). I’m also not looking forward to a worse interface and larger size of the touchscreen g5 receiver, either, once my current G5 receiver gives up the ghost.
Why these companies can’t sit down with users and discuss the interface design with them, blows my mind. Instead, they go full-steam ahead with a mishmash of features, labyrinthine menus (another example: Sony cameras. terrible interface on nice cameras). I used to work with software interfaces, so I generally instantly see the gross mistakes made when I pick up a new device. sigh.
I appreciate your very detailed description of the issues. Sorry about your troubles.
Are you able to swap it out with big M for a newer paradigm, or do you have to use the out-of-warranty pump? Are there any options for you with the company? I am guessing you had a righteous co-pay to get it. Hopefully you are not out that money.
Also I appreciate all the info you have shared with everyone during your try of the pump.
As a side note, if you are bailing and you need a different pump, have you thought about a different type, like Tandem or OmniPod? Or is the insurance co-pay a deal-breaker for that?
Or one of me throwing it against a wall maybe? It’s that thing of getting timed out when I thought I was doing a bolus. By the time I get back to the “Deliver” screen I’m really wishing I was in a room alone with the UI designer and a baseball bat.
Took a hard look at all the options when my warranty ran out last year and really I was closest to going with Animas–pretty glad I didn’t make that call; I’ve been orphaned once (Asante Snap) and not keen on having that experience again–before I met with my MedT rep and got the extensive 670 presentation, which decided me. Which is not to say I wasn’t ambivalent. In the end NONE of these devices are perfect; it all comes down to choosing which annoyances you personally find the most tolerable.
So I’ll have the 670 for emergency backup, and clunky as it is my old pump works fine as a pump. I was doing fine with that and the Dex G5. Who knows, I may decide to give it another try at some point
Thank-you @DrBB for your thoughtful and insightful 670 reviews. I’m sorry it’s been so frustrating. Kind of reminds me when I did a five month Omnipod trial and bailed on one Thanksgiving morning when I had to deal with sky-high BGs due to yet another failed site or occlusion. I had just enough success during that trial to keep me interested, so I stayed the course.
It’s interesting that there are many satisfied users of the 670G system; it underlines how important choice is for us. I’m hoping that Medtronic will take some important lessons from this experience and bring to market a better design in the 670 successor.
I’ve thought about all the user interface issues with my 31 years of pump use. Sometimes I even wonder if they talk to real users, people who live with a device all day every day. I would love to see behind the scenes and see what kind of user interface studies that they do. I always felt that marketing and engineering held most of the design influence and users were give short shrift.
I hope that a pump company or two would look at the open source DIY community as potential collaborators instead of competitors. I think much could be gained by companies like MiniMed.
This study will compare the FDA-approved hybrid closed loop system by Medtronic (670G) to a next-generation Medtronic system programmed to further improve glucose control, particularly around mealtime, which is currently one of the biggest challenges with all hybrid closed loop systems.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03040414
Recruitment Status: Not yet recruiting
Anticipated Study Start Date: September 1, 2018
Estimated Primary Completion Date: December 31, 2019
Estimated Study Completion Date: June 29, 2020
EDIT: Study updated.
Study Start: Moved out from September 1, 2018 ==> March 30, 2019
It bothers me that the clinical trial doesn’t seem to include finger stick data. If they are relying solely on CGM data it’s possible that they maybe missing Peak blood sugars that aren’t picked up by the Medtronic sensors.
It is “NO, I’M NOT LOW! Don’t you turn off! Resume, damn you!” followed by me confirming that yes, my blood sugar is north of 150, not south of 80. Again. Usually between midnight and 5am. Because everyone loves being woken up by an electronic device in the middle of the night.
I too started on my 670 after using a Dexcom 5 and older 630. I agree with all your detailed complaints but am sticking with the 670 ,for now, because it is giving me less variation in my numbers. I turn off all the alerts/alarms I can but am annoyed when I get a low alarm, in the middle of the nite of course, that is based upon a wrong sensor BG. My choices than are to turn off the sensor or try and get the pump to accept a new BG which it usually won’t without calibrating which usually doesn’t work because of the difference in the actual BG and the alarmed sensor BG. I swear they have the pump programmed to give a low alarm when unwarranted to protect you from going low possibly. Please don’t use deity swear words as I find them offensive and they do not help make your point at all! Thanks.
The false lows you are experiencing are a result of their sensor technology, not any programming within the pump. Dexcom sensors are less prone to reporting false lows when laying down although with enough pressure on the sensor the reading can drop somewhat
YUP I 150% agree with all this. I started on the animas pump a few years ago and loved it and went with it all the way. But then when the Medtronic pump came out I had to have it thought it was a great Idea and the next best pump to have. I WAS WRONG!!! Yes I am done with the dam clicking and SCROLLING!!! what the hell. When you are in the middle of a meeting or speech now vibrating and beeping beside me is the dam pump. I can just reach down and pusha button to cancel alert because I know what it is but now I have to take the whole pump out sscroll down though the whole paragraph of whats going to cancel the alert. THANKS BUT I KNOW WHATS GOING ON! The other thing is I cant bolus and carb count bolus right from my meter like the animas ping. With the ping pump you can do your BS and then add how many carbs you are going to eat and then say yes deliveer insulin and bang done. OH NO not with the Medtronic you do your BS and then have to unclothe your self to get at the pump which is nicely tucked away and hidden unravel the tubing and click through all the menus to say yes please deliver, and then rewrap everything altogether and retuck it back away. and to many dam alerts… I know the resivore is about to empty quit telling me every 5 units. I should be able to get my whole history lesson from my pump if I want to write things down… and not have to use both. the meter should turn off when you take the dam strip out and not have to stand there for 1 minute holding down the button to turn it off!!!
WILL MEDTRONIC get any of this information? will they actualy change anything do you think? I hear the Tandum pump?? is coming to Canada now hhmm think there might be a change in the future…
Does anyone else get alarms every time they get in the car? And I don’t want to have to disrobe and read a paragraph to make it stop beeping while driving. That annoys me. The other stuff I can deal with.
This is when I love the Animas Ping meter-remote. Cancel the alarm with the remote. Or bolus while driving with the remote. But now, the Animas will die. Boo hoo.
The Animas remote was a main reason we ran the Animas Ping two years past warranty. This was absolutely the reason we did not switch to the Animas Vibe. I could not understand for the life of me why the Vibe did not have the remote. Obviously it was Animas technology so I could not wrap my head around why the remote was not a part of the Animas Vibe system. Otherwise we definitely would have upgraded to the Vibe w/ G4.
I was waiting as I kept expecting Animas to come out with an announcement that the remote was now a part of the Vibe. And then we would have upgraded from the Ping to the Vibe.
Eventually Animas did come out with their big announcement but it was not exactly the sort of announcement I had expected. By that time we had already given up on Animas and upgraded to the Tandem t:slim X2 so the Animas decision no longer was impacting us.
Sometimes “new” isn’t “better”.
