Hi! My daughter currently has an out of warranty Animas Ping pump. I have been holding off on ordering a new pump for her because what has come out most recently does not seem to be a better fit for us. I’m wondering if anyone knows the suspected forecast for new releases and if so what the rumor is on the new features they’ll include? One of the main features we’d like for us is a pump having integrated Dexcom w/ remote bg meter and bolus capabilities that also works w/ Dex Share. Thanks for any feedback/suggestions!!!
The Animas Vibe is now available in N. Amreica. This is basically an upgraded Ping. It now acts as a receiver for a Dexcom G4. There are a couple of minor interface upgrades (e.g. EZbolus will populate the bolus field with one button press). However there is no remote interconnectivity with a BG meter.
I have been using the Vibe with a Dexcom for nearly 2 years. I find that the Dexcom connectivity works well (although the screen is rather smaller than on the dedicated Dexcom receiver). I had remote meter connectivity on my old medtronic pump and never used it - it’s not much of an effort to dial in the meter reading manually).
I am not aware that there are any upgraded or new Animas pumps on the horizon. I believe that T-Slim are planning to introduce Dexcom integration - I am not sure when this will be released.
The new Medtronic 640G was released in the UK earlier in 2015. Users tell me that this is a fantastic pump with a modern screen and interface. It integrates with the Medtronic Enlite sensors and has a degree of closed loop/artificial pancreas capability which will adjust basal rates using an algorithm that predicts future low BG based on sensor readings. The new Enlites are a big improvement on previous Medtronic sensors, although the consensus is that they are still not as reliable or accurate as the Dexcom G4. However, the friend that is using the system says is very impressed by how well the predicitive low BG suspend feature works (the old system in the Veo/530G was pretty much useless).
Bear in mind that the 530G was not approved for release in in the US for over 3 years after its release in Europe so it may be a while before the 640G appears on the other side of the pond.
Joel
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Tandem’s new t:slim will have Dexcom integration. It’s currently in for FDA approval & would be later this year or next year before coming to market. Might want to take note, that in it’s current form you would still need an extra Dexcom Receiver with Share inorder to use the Share2/Follow apps. FDA Approval of Tandem’s t:slim with Integrated Dexcom G4 Platinum CGM Expected in 2015
Then there is the new Omnipod system that will have Dex also. But they are not expecting to submit to the FDA until later this year, so would be next year or 2017 before market. (I think they are waiting to submit after the Dex G5 approval so they can have that integration faster) Article on DiabetesMine that outlines new tech, includes a new Omnipod blurb.
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“In disappointing news, Tandem will not offer an upgrade program for those currently using a t:slim pump to get on the t:slim G4.”
That’s a bummer. MM offers new pumps for $500 through their upgrade plan (I forget the name of that plan) and one time, by sending my old pump in as a trade in, I made five bucks on the deal, because the actual cost of the upgrade was $495 and trade in value was $500. 
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Just a general comment, somewhat OT, but wouldn’t it be nice if the capability to download regular software updates/upgrades were built into these things, the same as virtually every other complex electronic device made in the last ten years. The 4-year replacement limitation so many of us face with our pumps would be a lot easier to tolerate if improvements to interface and software functionality were being made available on something at least approaching the pace we experience in the rest of the digital world. Because aside from big changes like CGM integration which entail physical modification, the hardware stuff all works fine year after year, but there are all kinds of software improvements that could make life easier as they come available, especially taking user-feedback into account as is standard practice in all kinds of systems development these days.
I mean, I can understand why my 2 year-old Minimed isn’t going to suddenly start supporting a touch-screen graphical interface, but even within the 1990’s-pager style interface it does have there are a number of things that could be tweaked up in the occasional update.
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Absolutely. My impression is that a huge barrier to that is current FDA regulations, since any update would have to receive independent FDA approval. The FDA is understandably risk averse, so they’re much more worried about the downside of an update screwing up your crucial medical device than they are focused on the upside of the improvements updates would yield.
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There has never been, to my knowledge, a feature update on MM pumps. just minor version changes to the OS.
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I’m sure you’re right, but really there’s no reason in principle why the two things need to be so immutably locked together. I don’t have to have the latest iPhone in order to run the latest IOS version. It’s such an archaic, pre-digital mindset. Which may partly explain this:
That’s exactly the problem, though, isn’t it. It’s not like the features (or god knows, the interface design) have achieved some state of perfection beyond which no improvements are conceivable. It’s more like they have an engineering-centric culture where improvements to the physical device are primary and fiddling with the software is decidedly secondary and more or less an afterthought. I’m surely overstating the case in my youthful zeal and enthusiasm, but it really does feel in some ways like we’ve wandered into a strange technological backwater where the rest of the digital age has passed us by.
LOL! Being an FDA-certified device certainly has drawbacks when it comes to updates. And us Android users know the pain of delayed (or lack of) updates for cell phones unless we have a Nexus device.