Tidepool Dexcom iCGM & Loop + Medtronic

Diabetes Technology
1

from Tidepool (June 7 2019)

Today is a big day for Tidepool. This afternoon at the DiabetesMine DData Exchange, Howard Look, Tidepool president and CEO, made two big announcements.

First, and you probably saw this coming, we’ve signed an official agreement with Dexcom as the first iCGM partner for Tidepool Loop. Tidepool has been an active partner with Dexcom since 2014, and we’re thrilled to bring the Dexcom G6 iCGM as a key component of the Tidepool Loop ecosystem.

Second, and I’m guessing you didn’t see this coming, we’ve announced an agreement to collaborate with our friends at Medtronic to support a future Bluetooth-enabled MiniMed™ pump with Tidepool Loop .

You can read more about this collaboration with Medtronic and what this means for us moving forward on our blog.

In addition to a future Bluetooth-enabled Medtronic MiniMed™ pump, Tidepool Loop will also work with a future version of Insulet’s Omnipod DASH system.

From the beginning of this project, our goal has been to provide people with diabetes an interoperable system, promoting individual choice in diabetes management. Medtronic’s partnership with Tidepool to deliver Tidepool Loop demonstrates a tremendous step forward in our ambitious goal to deliver an FDA regulated version of Loop.

If you’re into press releases, Medtronic has also issued a joint press release about this agreement.

There’s still a lot of work to do - Tidepool Loop is currently in development and not available for commercial use - but we wanted to take this moment to celebrate and share this milestone with all of you and once again extend a tremendous amount of appreciation to Medtronic for stepping up for this incredible collaboration.

Along with our fun at DData, this week(end) marks the American Diabetes Association’s 79th Scientific Sessions conference, taking place in San Francisco, California. Events like this are a big deal because there are only so many opportunities for the entire professional diabetes ecosystem to gather at one time.

If you’d like to follow along our ADA 2019 adventure, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It will be a busy few days for us, but the conversations we have at meetings like this can form the foundation for promising partnerships and collaborations in the future.

Finally, I want to also let you know Tidepool will be showing up strong at Children with Diabetes Friends for Life conference in Orlando in July, and the American Association of Diabetes Educators Annual Meeting in Houston in August. I hope I bring enough stickers for all your smiling faces.

Yours in data,
Christopher Snider
Community Manager

6 Likes
2

No way, no how would I trust a BT connection for a pump! No FREAKING way. there are enough issues already with Dexcom and BT devices. There would have to be a whole new type of BT that was more reliable before I’d place my health in the hands of a BT-communicating pump. Are they just pretending that BT is reliable enough for this?

1 Like
3

I think Tidepool is one of the most innovate advances in our community in recent years. Bravo for it and its many advances. But for the record I wrote about Tidepool long before I was associated with Medtronic.

Note: I am a Medtronic ambassador. My opinions are my own. They did not pay me to say nice things about Medtronic devices or the company. OK, they sent me a shirt and a cup but even I am more expensive than that.

2 Likes
4

Very cool and exciting!!

2 Likes
5

Seems to be working well for Tandem Tslim.

6

Apples and oranges. BT in Tandem is for the sensor–a phone doesn’t control the pump. The looping is for a pump controlled by a phone. No thanks. If I’m wrong, someone correct me.

7

I found the following article helpful in describing the Ipump, iCgm interoperability.

3 Likes
8

Hey @Dave44, can you elaborate on the BT problems with Dexcom? I’ve been reading the BT specs in preparation, but I’m still operating on RF. I’ve been clinging to older devices with a death grip, but I know I’m gonna have to make the change.

Both my Dex G4 and Omnipod operate off of RF. I don’t worry so much about BT as I do about the including a cell phone into the mix. I would feel better (although still not fantastic) if I could disable internet connection.

9

I don’t think cell phone service is required, unless you want to use features like share or followers, so others can see the CGM/pump info. Assume they would offer the equivalent of receiver/controller device for those without cell phone.

I am currently using xdrip with low cost cell phone, without service. It provides the Bluetooth connection to read G6 transmitter.

1 Like
10

Here’s coverage by DiabetesMine on Med-T’s surprising adoption of Tidepool Loop and interoperability. Medtronic in recent years has steadfastly embraced a go-it-alone proprietary system that limited user choices. This move is a drastic pivot away from that philosophy.

I’m not worried about Bluetooth (BT) communication problems with a pump. My Loop communicates using BT from the iPhone to my RileyLink as the pump intermediary. It also communicates using BT to talk to my Dexcom CGM. These communications are not perfect and I do experience data drop-outs at times. The algorithm, however, takes this in stride and my overall glucose control and safety does not suffer from this.

Technology that serves a valuable purpose always seems to improve over time. BT communications will also get better.

3 Likes
11

I don’t have the patience or time to go in to all the things that routinely interrupt the BT communication from my G5 to my phone. Like I said, things need to improve from the current technology before I’d trust a phone/pump system. So many things to go wrong–dead battery on a phone can occur in less than 6 hours. Cell phones are fragile, unlike a pump clipped to my waistband and tethered by the tubing. My current pump goes for about 3-4 weeks on a battery. I’m not impressed by the idea of using a cell phone to control a pump.

12

@Dave44 The connection to the G6 is superior to that of the G5.
And while I share your skepticism with running something this vital over BT, I think that the way that most of these setups are created, it can run by itself without the BT connection for quite some time before it would have or create any issues.
The pumps still MUST be able to function indepentently of any thing else. Just like any other pump. But it will be able to take updates from the phone as needed / when available.

Honestly, unless you leave your phone somewhere else, I don’t think we will see any real/large impact of the occasional missed signals.

1 Like
13

Just as I’d have range anxiety if I drove an EV (I drive a hybrid which goes more than 550 miles on a tank of gas–love it!), I’d be concerned about using a cell phone w/ a pump. For something as critical as an insulin pump, I don’t even like the idea of needing to charge the battery every couple of days. It’s already a PITA for me to charge the receiver as frequently as it requires. I much prefer using disposable batteries that last about a month, as is the case with my Medtronic pump. I’ve enough products to keep charged up every day…and none of them are as important as a pump.

1 Like
14

I am with you on the charging vs swappable batteries.
I have been on the X2 pump for a couple years now, and I rarely have issues with this.
If you can remember, just charge it when showering.
If you work at a computer, it is super easy to charge, and upload your data.

Thing is, with all the older style pumps, they may be more reliable. But they will also not get updates/upgrades like the newer pumps will get.

1 Like
15

Absolutely.

16

Would be nice to see about the new 14 abbott day sensor communicate with a pump as a cgm part integrated as a family member in tidepool. I mean not just downloading data but a key integrated cgm. I know it is under development with the new Bigfoot pump. Their product is less money than Dexcom and would appeal to self pay and those without insurance. Many people using Dexcom and Medtronic sensors have insurance as to how they pay for their products.

17

+1 …to this!! Less of an issue than forgetting about changing the battery on my old pump.

18

I am not a tech person at all. But I will say computers know I’m not and they are the nightmare in my daily life. That being said, I have enjoyed greatly every new piece of diabetes equipment I have. And everyone of them has been better than the last one. I will also say, I don’t get whatever the product is as soon as it hits the market. I always wait a bit to see everyone work out the kinks.
I must say Bluetooth has been pretty darn easy. I was a G4 receiver user before I got the G6. I liked each piece of equipment doing it’s own thing. But with the Tandem IQ, I had to go to phone use. And I have had no major problems with any connections. Sure once in awhile it drops but it’s never been more than 30 minutes and the pump is still working.
And I don’t think any pump would hit the market that has not been through testing. And I have learned to give up all that control I felt I needed and I let the pump do it’s thing. I mean even if it got something wrong, my sensor would alarm one way or the other. I have great trust in the system and great trust in the testing of these products. I can’t wait for the time when I don’t have to really think about my diabetes and which way my blood sugar is going. Technology can be our friend! Even if computers hate me!

2 Likes
19

Today is a perfect example of why I don’t want my phone integrated with a pump. I use my S7 for xdrip for my G5. Usually it works well. Today, despite herculean efforts to fix the problem, it refuses to work. 2 reinstalls, “forget device” several times, all the usual fixes haven’t worked. multiple reboots. no joy. It’s a good thing I always way the Dex receiver or I’d have no access to my readings. Thanks a lot, technology companies. NOT!
UPDATE: did more things to the phone to get xdrip to work. total time it didn’t work was around 6 hours. Not wanting to do a factory reset, and knowing the issue was a BT communications issue, even deleting BT data didn’t fix the problem. Finally, after pressing the “scan” button in BT a zillion times, only to see the old Dexcom xmitter serial number come up, eventually I heard that reassuring “ding” of Dexcom getting data, despite the correct xmitter not showing immediately in the BT settings screen. Of course, in a few moments, the current xmitter serial number showed up in the BT “paired devices” (or xdrip wouldn’t be working, of course). I want no part of this sort of thing with a pump.

20

I had similar issues trying to use the s7 for eversense, esel, xdrip, and nsclient…it always failed…upgraded the phone and it works fine now…I almost bought a refurbished s9+ because it has 6gb of ram, but went with the Razer 2 because it has 8gb of ram, and is about 1/2 the cost of the s10…the 4gb of ram on the s7 is probably not enough with all the new apps required to run the diabetic devices…my s7 battery also would die in about 3 hours

1 Like