Hi,
Due to a change in my insurance coverage, I need to move from a Cozmo pump to either the Revel or Ping. After pumping insulin for 8 years on Minimed pumps, I really appreciated the smart insulin management features of the Cozmo over the Minimeds. I don’t care as much about waterproof cases, fancy color screens, or remotes.
If you have switched from a Cozmo to Minimed or Animas, I would really appreciate your thoughts and experiences.
Thanks!
I traded in my Cozmo when MM and Animas offered the trade in program.
I traded for a refurbished Ping, used up the rest of my warranty and now have a Revel.
My suggestion is to see and review the pumps in question, and decide based on what you know you like. You might also want to meet the local reps.
If you do go MM and want a One Touch integrated meter, dont wait too long.
I believe in January they wont be giving out that meter with the Revel anymore.
I never used the Ping remote much but I like both meters and prefer One Touch so I'm glad they sent one with the Revel.
I started with MM then switched to Cozmo. I liked the pump but thought customer service was very poor. Then Smith Medical stopped making Cozmo and I couldn't get supplies anymore, or so they told me. So when the insurance company allowed, I went back to MM. I'm glad because there is always someone to talk to when things go wrong. Also, being a woman, I really do need a remote for when I wear certain clothing and the MM has a good one (although way too expensive). The only problem I have is that the medical supply company my insurance company makes me use sent me the large-size pump and the reservoir is way too large for my needs. I can only fill it less than one-half full in order to change the insulin every 3-4 days like they want.
I switched from a Cozmo to a Ping last April. I had the Cozmo 1700 (older model), though, so didn't have some of its cool features like the hypo manager.
I love the remote meter on the Ping and the screen is MUCH (!!!) easier to read. (I am visually impaired, though. The Cozmo screen was very difficult for me.)
I do not like the way the Ping handles insulin on board. I don't understand its math sometimes. The Cozmo always made sense and always worked out the same way as I did with a calculator. The Ping often recommends a larger bolus than I get when I work it out on paper, so I don't trust it as much.
The meter has some nice logging features but I haven't figured out how to actually access this data once it's downloaded, which makes it kind of pointless for recording exercise and such.
I also find the Ping generally more ergonomic when it's clipped to my pocket or when I'm holding it. Pressing buttons on the Cozmo used to actually make my fingers sore if I was doing it a lot because it requires so much pressure. The Ping buttons are much nicer, and the pump seems lower profile when clipped to clothing. I also think the Ping looks a lot nicer than the Cozmo (or Minimed, for that matter).
I have no experience with Minimed so can't help there. I did have a look at a Veo (Revel) and the main thing I remember was that the screen was impossible for me to read. That was my number one priority when I was switching pumps and is why I went with the Ping.
Love my MM Revel. Comes in 2 sizes (1.8 and 3.0 ml reservoir). I generally take less than 30 units/day so the smaller revel is perfect for me. I find all the menus and such very intuitive and was very happy with MM customer service. Also, the Mio infusion sets are great!! I should note that I don't get my supplies through MM, but rather Liberty, so I have not had to deal with MM that much.
Also, I don't know what kind of data support the Ping has, but MM offers Carelink, which I absolutely love. I upload my data to the site several times a week and my endo's office prints out the reports on their end. Really nice. And it has helped me be more consistent about logging my numbers.
I have used the MiniMed Paradigm (the one before that but can't remember the name at the moment) and the Animas Ping and I prefer MM. I feel it is more user friendly than the Ping. I have been using the Ping for last 2 years but because of reasons below I am returning to Minimed.
Animas Pros
LCD Screen, less "medical" looking, waterproof
Animas Cons
I have a problem when mine just decides it's not primed anymore and I have to go through and prime it again, this has happened several times in a row before - HUGE pain because it's distracting when I treat patients.
You have to re-prime after you change the battery - annoying
Flimsy belt clip - mine has broken several times to the point where I gave up ordering a new one and use my spibelt. For 20$ they should do a lot better - in fact I hate the belt clip design - it doesn't clip it slides on and off so my pump has taken a beating many times especially when using the bathroom
I have lost the black cap that holds the reservoir down while I was doing a pump change, I was in a rush so not sure if it went down the sink, under the stove or in the the trash but it was obviously a problem. I ended up using tape to keep the reservoir in place so I could get to a concert.
Pump changing in general seems to require more steps then MM.
These are just finer points that I have noticed, in general the pumps work the same but I don't think I will be deviating from MM again, I have been using the pump for over 12 years. I hope this helps in your decision.
I love my Revel, named Lilly, after the insulin manufacturer. Wouldn't trade her for the world. She's purple!
I have a MM722, second one in 3.75ish years. I liked it a lot within about 2 hours of getting going on it. I haven't ever played with the other ones but I see some of the complaints about them in forums and am not disappointed. I agree with Sweet Lady about the Customer Service too. Medtronics customer service, while they were unable to get me a pump on the holiday weekend when it blew up over the summer, it came bright and early on Tuesday, when they said it would, even though UPS didn't confirm that until like 7:30 on their website. It sort of mystifies me that MM seem to be characterized as an insensitive big player in the pump market because a lot of the docs seem oriented towards them but the company (Johnson and Johnson) that owns Animas is considerably bigger than Medtronics and should have the resources to provide customer service too.
I love my MM Revel too, and I have had nothing but positive experiences with the customer service. My MM is my first pump but I find it very easy to use, and the Carelink software that you can upload your pump info to is great.
Been using my Revel since November 17 and very pleased with it.
I think the way the screens are set up is really nice and I like it better than the Ping.
My local CS and service over the toll free number has been just fine, locally much better than Animas ever was.
I have not yet set up the software, that's next on the agenda. But the pump is great!
I dont compare either pump to the little Cozmo though.
I kinda miss my little blue Cozmo. It was one cool pump.
Have fun setting up your CareLink software if you are running Windows 7, I finally broke down and called Medtronic, but they talked me right through it. It was VERY easy once I knew where to go to open my IE up as an administrator.
I have XP on my desktop and 7 on my laptop. I think I will use XP.......hopefully that one isnt too hard?!
I don't remember, I think both of them you have to go to the command line like in the old DOS to "run:" the program to install it? I thought it was sort of odd to set it up that way.
LOL I think you will be ok with XP, there is just some weird issue with 7.
With 7 I had to go to my Windows Icon down in the lower left corner, I guess your start up icon, click on All Programs, and then right click on the Internet Explorer (not the one that says Internet Explorer 64 bit). Once you right click on it, it gives you the option to run Internet Explores as an administrator. When you click on that then IE opens up as normal...you go to the carelink site and register your software. To make matters worse lol I had to go in and deleate a corrupted file so when I did do it correctly...it would recognize the driver. Yeah If I still had my computer with XP I definately would have used XP to install it too. Wonder about Mac, Im thinking of making the switch next laptop I get, how hard it is to install on Mac?