YpsoPump approved in Canada

Canadians now have another choice in insulin pumps with the approval of the YpsoPump.

Here’s a nice Diabetes Daily article about the pump (from Australia).

Here’s the official pump website.

This pump is on my to-check-out list since I’m in need of a new pump. Its main drawback (for me) is the small cartridge size and possibly small print size (I haven’t seen it yet, though, and the screen does look very bright). But I like so many of its other features. So we shall see! More choice is always good!

Although the pump is being advertised as simple, word is that partnerships with CGM companies are in the works (and I’ve also read somewhere that the DIY Loop folks have this pump on their radar).

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Make sure you have a good play with the MyLife app as well if you’re considering this pump.

We used the app for a few months as it was the bolus calculator app recommended by my son’s DEs when he was diagnosed earlier this year.

While the interface is generally clean and nice, we had a few significant issues with reliability and functionality of the app (used on iOS 12.1 and 12.2 on iPhone 5s, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8):

  1. the bolus calculator by default takes IOB into account when calculating a meal bolus. If you give a bolus for 50g carb, then 15 minutes later decide you’re having an extra 20g, it will tell you you don’t need any extra insulin because of your IOB. You have to deliberately answer “no” to the question it pops up about your last bolus and tell it to calculate without IOB, then accept a warning about the bolus being calculated without IOB. Not good design and tricked us into under-dosing a few times when we were starting out.
    2)While you’re supposed to be able to use the app on multiple devices synced via the cloud, this was buggy, and we often had to manually force it to sync. This was a nuisance if I was looking after him at breakfast, then my wife had to call in his dose at morning break at school etc. Might not be an issue if you’re using it on a single device, but it wasn’t confidence inspiring.
    3)The app locked up or crashed fairly frequently, making it time consuming to use. Again this could be related to running it on multiple devices and pulling data from the cloud, but if it can’t even pull tiny amounts of data like time, BG, dose, carbs then it’s poorly written.

[NB no experience using the pump, the criticisms above relate to the app on iOS devices only. The pump itself may be great, lightweight, IPX8, glass cartidges are all pros, and the Android app may well work fine too].

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Thanks for the information about the app. I use iOS myself. Both of the pump’s I’ve used in the past have had annoying IOB issues when bolusing such as what you’ve mentioned (not necessarily the same issues, but similar situations of recommending no insulin in certain circumstances where I’d actually like to take some). Hopefully the stability of the app has improved, though I wouldn’t be using it on multiple devices. The main appeal of an app, for me, that I’m legally blind and can zoom in on an app and read it, which is much harder to do with a pump screen. In the past, I’ve barely used the bolus calculators on the two pumps I’ve owned because I can’t see the screens. So being able to use a bolus calculator, even on an app with some annoyances, may still be an advantage for me. It’s great that it sounds like you can use the app without using the pump—this is definitely something I’ll try before making a decision.

That does seem like a pretty cool pump for you @Jen since you can use pre-filled reservoirs. The website is a little unclear, can you do things like bolus and adjust basal rates from your phone or just view the info? Hope they can get it integrated with cgms.

The app currently just reads information from the pump, no control of the pump. My understanding is that both pump control and CGM integration (from the phone side) are in the works.

The Tandem app (also read-only) is supposed to come out shortly, so I’ll wait to see that before making my final decision.

ooh, 160U reservoir is a bit on the light side. I have used the 180 for 20+ years, but wish it was larger.

any links?

Yeah, this is the only true downside for me. That sized cartridge would last me two days. Maybe three during insulin sensitive times (or when eating very low carb). But I wonder if having pre-filled cartridges would largely mitigate that. The cartridges are glass, and they also have pre-filled NovoRapid cartridges (not released yet), so you could pre-fill these up to a month in advance and just keep them in the fridge or your bag. I also wonder whether the pump company’s statement that you do not need to change cartridge and infusion set simultaneously means that the different cartridge/tubing connection creates fewer bubbles. I don’t change my infusion set now when I change my cartridge (unless it’s time), but I do always need to re-prime tubing to get rid of a giant air bubble that appears as soon as you unscrew the tubing from the old cartridge and screw it onto the new one.

Still not in the App Store. I am checking daily. :slight_smile:

apple or android?

I’m using Apple.

The YpsoPump app supports both platforms. I’m not sure about hte Tandem app. I haven’t heard anything about it except that my endocrinologist said it’s already approved by Health Canada should be coming out soon.

I change my reservoir and tubing at same time, when reservoir is empty. Independently change infusion site (quick set), with extra canula prime since it is not primed during tubing change. This eliminates bubbles.

And the Canadian X2 pumps appear already programmed to interface with the Tandem Mobile App.

The USA X2 pumps will (almost certainly) require an update to interface with the Tandem Mobile App.

This is usually what I do, too. But there are times that my pump runs out of insulin when I’m at work, out somewhere else, or in the middle of the night, and at those times I don’t want to change both the cartridge and the site. So, when changing just the cartridge, I have to waste insulin filling tubing (either new tubing or else re-filling the old tubing to get rid of the big air bubble that results).

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That makes sense. Good to know about the bubbles if I ever have to it that way.