Earlier in the year at the Diabetes bloggers summit, my friend Gina gave me a preview of The Diabetes Resource. Even though this was waay back in July and long before the official launch, I was impressed by the design of the site itself and the sheer amount of really useful information that's in there.
Gina, is responsible for the DiabetesTalkFest site and the CGM Anti-Denial Campaign site and has been online for many years. She really understands the kinds of diabetes information that people are looking for and she and her team have done an awesome job at providing a great resource that's easy to use and well organized.
For example, The Diabetes Resource currently lists 41 web sites that provide diabetes accessories, most of which I didn't even know about. The events page on The Diabetes Resource gives you all the information about upcoming events, and makes it easy for you to add information about your event. There's also a chat room at The Diabetes Resource, so you have extra chances to connect with others who are living with diabetes.
I know, from maintaining the diabetes search engine, that the number of sites focusing on diabetes is constantly expanding. Many of these are useful and informative, but there are also a lot of sites with misleading information and spam. It takes a lot of effort to separate these sites from one another, luckily The Diabetes Resource has a great team that knows all about life with diabetes, so it can be depended on to keep this well maintained.
I was sitting in the dentist's office this afternoon and looking at some tweets, when this one from Manny caught my eye.
It pointed to his page about the news that Smiths-Medical is getting out of the diabetes market and taking the Cozmo insulin pump off the market.
My jaw almost dropped. I've been a happy Cozmo insulin pump user for about 18 months and I had planned to continue using them. Smiths-Medical distributed and supported the Cozmo pump. They announced today their "intent to stop selling the Deltec Cozmo® insulin pump, and manage an orderly, carefully controlled exit from the diabetes business over time."
Smiths-Medical has created a special web page with all the details about this announcement. It also contains answers to a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs). Basically those of us with pumps will be supported until the end of our warranty and Smiths-Medical will continue to provide supplies and support for the Cozmo pump.
As Kerri pointed out in her post on the announcement, this wasn't a big market for Smiths-Medical and it required a large support organization. So perhaps it was inevitable.
I've enjoyed and benefited from the features and flexibility of the Cozmo pump and I'm sorry to see it disappear from the market. We're now left with three main players in the insulin pump market: Minimed Medtronic; Animas; and Insulet Omnipod. I'd really like to see much more competition.
Perhaps some new ideas will happen as a results of Amy's 2009 DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge. I'd sure like to see another choice when it comes to insulin pumps.
I haven't written a blog post for a while due to extreme work pressures. I've had many ideas for a post, but no time to do so.
I received an invitation from David and Elizabeth Edelman of Diabetes Daily to start a blog over there. This seemed like a great opportunity, so I've accepted. For now, I'll post in both places with different articles and topics. Eventually I'll have to decide how best to handle it.
I'm extremely happy to be joining David, Elizabeth and Amylia on the Diabetes Daily team and I look forward to writing more about diabetes technology and challenges.
The picture shows an already available chip that's about the size of a grain of rice and that contains some patient identification information. There are no details about the size of the planned glucose sensor device, but the company claims
"This system will allow for one injection every 4-6 months (approximate) that permits the diabetic to externally scan the device and retrieve a blood sugar reading as often as necessary."
Today Technology Review has an article about a Massachusetts company that's also working on implantable devices. MicroCHIPS is working on a device for osteoporosis treatment that provides daily delivery of a drug for treating that condition.
They are also working on an implantable glucose sensing device that contains an array of individual sensors. So when one sensor degrades, the device can turn a new one on and continue monitoring. The device will transmit the readings to an external monitor. The article claims that this information could be sent to an insulin pump.
My guess is that either of these devices are several years away. And when available not everyone will be comfortable with the idea of implanting something. For example what happens with MRIs or when passing through X-ray systems at airports?
So there's a need for education that covers the benefits and the likely issues with this type of device. Maybe these companies can look at how pacemaker companies have succeeded in getting their devices accepted.
"Medingo is developing a disposable insulin pump that is significantly smaller than the leading pumps on the market. In contrast to current pumps, it resembles a patch rather than a pacemaker. The product has one main competitor, Insulet Inc. (Nasdaq:PODD). Insulet broke through the market for us, and we believe that we have the better product. It's half the volume, and discrete, so it can be worn even with a close-fitting shirt. We also think that the user interface is better."
Just a quick note. My local newspaper the Lowell Sun published an article about my bike ride on Sunday. If you'd like to read it, it's available on the web, and I also scanned it in. And I'm still taking donations for the ride. ;-)
Update: I forgot to point out that my good friend Manny, who is the mover and shaker behind TuDiabetes.com, did all the heavy lifting on this article. He sent out a press release to several local papers for me and generated the interest that led to the article. Thanks Manny, you're a star.
In a strange and somewhat sad coincidence the facing page has an obituary for a 29-year old who died from diabetes complications. I think folks without diabetes don't realize this happens.
This Monday at 1:30 PM (PDT) Dexcom management will be having a conference call to discuss the approval and launch of the Dexcom SEVEN CGMS. Hopefully this will answer some of the questions raised during the earlier announcement about the FDA approval for this system.
The number and codes have changed for this call. The new numbers are given below.
The number for the call is (866) 290-0920 (US/Canada) or (913) 312-6670 (International). And the participant code is "7146581". You should dial in about 1:25 PM (PDT). This seems to be a listen-only line. Does anyone know what number to call so you can ask questions?
The conference call will also be webcast. You can find the link to the webcast on the Dexcom webcast page. You can go there today and pre-register for this call.
I'd like to know the answers to the following questions:
When will the Dexcom SEVEN system be available to consumers?
Will the new software be available on the same date? If not, when will the software ship?
What's the pricing for the system and sensors?
What's the upgrade pricing for the new system?
I hear the transmitter and sensors are waterproof. Is the receiver also waterproof?
I'd like more details about the software. Does it provide statistics, including the the average, and standard deviation for blood glucose values? Does is allow access to the data?
If this is such great news, how come the stock price is still depressed?
I'll be camping at the time. So I'll wait and listen to the archive later in the week.
The updated Dexcom press release doesn't give much more details than I reproduced here.
What questions would you ask Dexcom, if you could? Perhaps you'd like to e-mail them to Jessica Ching, Marketing VP for Dexcom. Her e-mail address is jching@dexcom.com.
Note: I currently own some shares in Dexcom, I work not to let this ownership influence what I say about the company or its products.
I've been doing prototype development with Flex for about six weeks now, and it's really an awesome tool for putting together polished, rich demos and applications. I'm still climbing the learning curve, and really enjoying it.
I think this is going to be an interesting challenge to Microsoft's recent announcement about Silverlight. After all, I can't see them open sourcing Visual Studio or any part of their stack like this.
The Diabetes Technology Blog is focused on using technology to life better with diabetes. I review: blood glucose monitors; continuous glucose monitor; blood sugar meters; diabetes software and living with diabetes.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 36 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN Plus CGM to track my blood glucose levels.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
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