Animas Vibe Review: Insulin Pump & Dexcom G4 Combo - reganallse1981

For two weeks during the holidays, I test-drove chisel the new Animas Vibe combo device (Animas insulin pump plus Dexcom dogging glucose monitor) approved past FDA just over a calendar month ago.

We appreciate this opportunity for a trial-run of this exciting new device earlier it formally hits the market in the coming weeks.

This is only the irregular combined insulin pump-CGM product ever made available in the U.S. (after Medtronic's system), and the first to include the democratic Dexcom G4, and it's been a loooong meter coming; Dexcom and Animas first announced their joint-ontogeny arrangement back in January 2008, and this integrated system was launched overseas in mid-2011. There's been a lot of buildup here in the States, earlier and after Animas filed with regulators in April 2013, so I had high hopes going into this deuce-week trial.

{Revealing: JnJ supplied me with the full system and supplies to last circa 16 days. As e'er, this was nether the concord that they would have no shape over what we say Oregon pen.}

In the words of my awesome Animas pedagog during my training in late Dec: You can think of this system in damage of a dwelling — the two components used to be separate housing units, only at once they co-exist subordinate the same roof and are more like different rooms within one big home. Now anyone using information technology gets whol the benefits of that joint home's plumbing, heating, air conditioning, etcetera.

I constitute that there are good and not-so-good things just about the Vibration, and as with everything, opinions will depart. Sadly, nothing wowed me personally about the Vibration, and even the reinforced-in CGM isn't enough to convince Pine Tree State it was worth the wait, or convince Pine Tree State to buy in this system for myself.

Keep in mind: I'm upcoming at this from much than a decade of happy Medtronic pumping, and I've only tried the Ping for one month to get a feel for it a year or so agone. I wasn't impressed then, merely in spades wondered if this slightly-modified interlingual rendition fill out with built-in CGM might be enough to turn me into an Animas pumper — merely that wasn't the case.

Here are my observations from my deuce weeks of test-examination:

G4 Integration: The Vibe's biggest claim to fame is obviously the CGM combination, i.e. the apparently appealing need to look at only one device for my D-data, with no need to transport a 2nd receiver around. Bank bill that you can still start a

G4 receiver and pair it upwardly if you deprivation to, though IT's non included in the Vibration box. If desired, you'll experience to contact Dexcom and likely buy it on top of the costs of the new Vibration. Since I already own a Dexcom G4, I tuned my receiver and the Vibe into the same transmitter, and they both worked fine (see notes on the new algorithm below).

On the Vibe, you have all the same hourly trend screens (1, 3, 6, 12, 24) to gyre through as are shown on the G4 reciever, but one new extra screen shows your current parentage sugar indication in self-aggrandizing numbers, plus the trend arrow, time, and any Insulin On Board (IOB) right there at the bottom! I was impressed that the system remembers the last CGM screen you viewed, allowing you to more than quickly get back to where you were in type the screen times out and you take to wake up IT up again.

Duple-Suspension: When you suspend your insulin delivery, the CGM data stream is as wel put on suspensio. Nary, it doesn't really restart the sensor, but it means you can't see underway CGM data until you un-set aside. My trainer dropped this bombshell happening Maine during setup, but I forgot most it until a day more or less by and by when… a soft blood sugar born Pine Tree State set to 54 mg/dL, and I needed to lop off insulin for a bit. After I treated, I looked at the Vibe's CGM screen and realised I had zero clue where my blood sugar was heading or whether I needed further treatment. Luckily, I had my pre-existent G4 receiver by my side so I could see that I was rebounding, even up though I still felt pretty low. This setting is non a flaw, Animas says, because of the house-room analogy: if Dexcom and Animas are two rooms, and you step outdoorsy the house and lock the front door, you mislay access to both rooms until you go back inside.

Hmm… well, we also called Med-T to ask if their pump-CGM combos (either Revel operating theater 530G) fare this, and were told they don't have a dual-suspend like this Animas Vibration does.

CGM Algorithmic rule: As Animas filed this organization with FDA in Spring 2013, and Dexcom just standard approval on its latest advanced algorithmic rule last calendar month, the Vibe of course doesn't have that updated software built-in. Luckily, this didn't undergo practically of a negative affect for me. I found that most of my readings were inside 15 points of my updated Dexcom receiver, and the trend graphs were similar. It was fun to compare the two, specially whenNightscout/CGM in the Cloud was connected for some additional displays.

CRT screen and Colours: I really liked how brilliantly the shield lights up, every sentence you fight any button. Unlike MEd-T, the Vibe screen light doesn't time out and quell unsatisfactory American Samoa you move through the screen views. And the dandy "CGM Shortcut" button on the top of the inning of the pump also serves as a backlight and dimming/brightening switch, which is nice. And yes, I really liked the contrast of white text on black screen, and how the trend line is highlighted in yellow. Such easier on the eyes compared to Med-T, which has African-American textbook on grey and a black highlighter. The colours on the Vibe CGM screen are nice, too — especially the red and blue sky lines signaling high and humbled thresholds (although it would be nice to see the enumerate change color too, like-minded the numbers game on the G4 receiver screen do).

Treat-to-Target, Not Range: I'm a buff of how Animas gives you a target number for blood sugars, and uses that to public figure out how some insulin you might need for corrections. The notion behind that is aiming for specific targets, rather than just keeping you within some range defined as non-too-high and not-too-humiliated.

Math Class Redux: One of the key differences in how Animas pumps calculate insulin doses is by showing you all the maths and calculations as you scroll through the menus and numbers — rather than just "magically" producing a result like some other systems do. Veteran Animas users may be used to this, and flush like it… just I found it discouraging. It reminded me of how mathematics teachers in school made USA show our put to work rather than just writing down a upshot. In this example, visual perception the "work" didn't provide any value to me, and the CRT screen just seemed cluttered with too many numbers game anytime I added in a BG value, corrected or dosed for food.

No Remote / Canceled Boluses: Unitary big alteration with the Vibe is that it doesn't come with a metre remote like its Animas Ping predecessor. Now, the remote itself isn't a big deal for me, as I'm not one who wants to hide my pump in a bag or underneath clothing and use a remote control for discreet scheduling. But the very nature of the Vibration calls for a unlikely, IMHO — because spell dosing insulin, you can't touch any button the least bit, or it will cancel your bolus. I lost number how many times I dosed insulin, and so when sliding the pump back into the holster along my whack or clipping it back into my pocket, the bolus was off because a button got nudged! Yes, you do draw a bit of a warning on the screen… for me, IT vibrated iv times, compared to the single palpitatio that indicates a bolus is completed. But coming from my sesquipedalian-familiar Med-T pump that vibrates three times after from each one realized bolus, I got mixed up by the difference in these alerts and didn't recognize what had happened. This is beyond infuriating to me. And possibly dangerous as well.

Less-Than-Ideal Scrolling: Teetotum-to-rear end scrolling is also how most Vibe menus operate, though the status screens allow you to actually ringlet down to the bottom arrows and voyage and to and fro. Simply the incarcerate time is very noticeable, and it doesn't full stop scrolling on the list when you release the button. This is another big thwarting for me, compared to the slick, easy designs I've seen on the other pumps out there. This clunky functionality really makes the Vibe feel a pager in a smartphone world, or a Palm Cowcatcher PDA in a touchscreen iPhone/Android universe. I've even been (not-so) fondly referring to the Vibe during this trial-run as my DOS-Prompt heart, thanks to the old-train scrolling and look of the menus.

Another issue I ran into was that patc scrolling through the menus to summons a dose, if a CGM alert happens to disrupt, the arrangement takes you back to the home screen to confirm. As a result, you're forced to outset the whole insulin dosing process once again from the embark on. Ugh!

Here's a quick demonstration (without any sound) of correcting a high blood sugar with the Vibe:

Wait For It: Seconds upon seconds are wasted with this pump. You set aside insulin delivery Beaver State CGM, or begin an insulin back breaker, and the Vibration immediately gives you a quick beep or vibration lease you love it's on Pause. Simply when you click on Curriculum vitae, at that place's nothing… for a whole 18 seconds, the heart impartial sits there without changing, locking you onto that highlighted Summarise line while you wonder if you've actually restarted your insulin dosing and CGM OR not. This drove me absolutely nuts.

Pass over to Value: On the beady side, the Vibe does have a "Jump to Value" feature that lets you void the need to scroll up from 0.0 every fourth dimension you privation to calculate an insulin dose (as you must with the Ping). With the Vibration, if you hit the risen arrow once, it automatically jumps to the last number used, and so you fire scroll up or down to change IT. This reduces some of the scrolling time, so I give Animas props along that change.

Smel the Burn: This is surprising, simply also something I've heard others mention — there were several times when the insulin seemed to burn when going into me. Animas delivers a lot faster than Med-T, so even with the speech speed up assault "Slow" rather of "Normal," the sensation made Pine Tree State flinch a few times. That united with trying out the Inset all-in-unmatched angled infusion setsfor the very first time, I had four of my infusion sites start hurting after a day operating theatre soh and matchless even had an insulin-bubble over under the pare where the cannula went in. Perchance IT's entirely operator-error and erudition curve Here, but combining that burning factor with how it only gives you about 180 units after priming, the insulin aspects of the Vibe made me to a lesser extent enthused about the livelong organisation.

Intellectual nourishment Database: I wasn't sure the food list was something I would care for much about, but it overturned out to beryllium a feature that I likeable. Turns unsuccessful, Animas put together this back into the Vibe aft making information technology only getatable in the Ping from the OneTouch Ping meter, unlike their originally 20/20 ticker model that included it in the pump itself. The pre-programmed listing includes all kinds of basic foods in different categories, and I used some of them without any effect. Merely unfortunately right now, at that place's no way to customize or personalise the food list (or the alert tones with our own custom-created sounds). Vibe users oversea can do several personalization, but non us in the States (grrr). Animas says the new Vibration doesn't work with the old ezManager Soap software that would normally allow for these customizations, and As of now the third-party DiaSend web-based logging platform doesn't support the food database either.

Data Access: Having never before tested Diasend, I recovered it pretty easy to setup and use. And IT was so very nice seeing all my data in one place – at least, my pump and CGM data. But as it turns away, since I am usually a Med-T pumper and use the coupled Bayer Contour Next USB Connect fingerstick meter, my meter isn't supported by Diasend. The non-Med-T coupled version of that Aspirin meter is supported, but not the linked uncomparable, thanks to competition 'tween Animas and Med-T. I didn't actually download data from my Vibe until the virtually-cease of my trial, so it didn't occur to Maine earlier to use a different meter for these couple of weeks. Oh, well. And I did contact some Animas and DiaSend about the food database organism included, and DiaSend assures us it's in the deeds. That will be a nice feature, to see all our food lists associated with the carb counts and insulin dosing.

Water-Friendly: Animas pumps are are waterproof at 12 feet for capable 24 hours. While this agency absolutely nothing to me personally, my Animas trainer mentioned that it's actually one of the nigh extremely-mentioned pros of the Animas pumps by most users, and I've heard from many D-friends who say it's very distinguished to them. It's something Animas can boast over competitors, since none of them rear end match it (even OmniPod, since the PDM controller isn't waterproof).

Soh that's my breakdown on what I song "life history features" of the Animas Vibe. If you deprivation to read more well-nig the technical foul aspects, confabulate this recent heart comparison roundup, and or tick off unstylish another DOC reviews by Kerri, Manny, and Melissa.

In summary, I'd sound out the Animas Vibe does what IT needs to, and has no qualms about touting its biggest draws — CGM integration, water-friendliness, and approximately easy-to-see color screens. You fire't reason with those, rattling. And how arse you seriously criticize a gimmick that's the only Dexcom G4-pump combo along the market, that's been secure for seven long time?!

As I wrote this review, I struggled with that. I spent deuce days reflecting, re-reading, re-evaluating the Vibe and trying to find Thomas More good benefits that I'd maybe missed or overlooked. I didn't desire to come off as a cross curmudgeon who refuses to accept change simply because it's different from what I'm soothing with. I didn't want to make up overly critical, but of course I need to share my honest take as someone coming to this trial with 14 geezerhood of pumping experience. And I actually had high hopes I might somehow be enamored with the Vibe.

Unfortunately that didn't occur, and my honest final finding of fact is this: the Vibe feels like an outdated, counter-visceral medical checkup device that seems like it would have been more relevant if discharged several old age ago as secure. Now, it doesn't feel innovative, simply rather like a device that's woof a commercialize need for pick only because it secure that a long time ago, and it's "better late than never."

But hey, the Vibe has a G4 built-in… right? Shouldn't that the i and only marketing point that matters?

I guess information technology depends on how untold a weaved-in CGM truly substance to you personally, whether a remote-controller option is a deal-breakers for you, and how much water activity you may have in your sprightliness.

Even though Tandem Diabetes has submitted its ain t:slim ticker-Dexcom G4 jazz band to Food and Drug Administration and could very advisable have that cleared soon, Animas snagged a six-calendar month exclusivity agreement with Dexcom, sol we are at least that long away from having other G4-integrative option. There are other partnerships planned for the coming yr or two as well, and that all antimonopoly makes Pine Tree State nervous active whether we'll take in any upgrades from Animas anytime soon — operating theater if we'll have to time lag many Thomas More years for the next iteration.

Meanwhile, we're happy to hear Animas say that in case someone buys the Vibe and is not happy with it for whatever reason, there is a 30-day fall policy*. As with all devices, I'm a huge believer in trying these out before qualification such an important commitment.

*(CORRECTION: Animas reached out on 1/9/15 to inform us they are not offer free trial-tests before you buy, Eastern Samoa we were originally told when phoning the main Animas customer service number and asking whether potential-customers could try incomparable taboo before buying.)

Thanks for this review opportunity, Animas, but mostly thanks to both you and Dexcom for seeing this foresightful process through to the end and bringing PWDs some other choice.