August 8, 2008

Dear Ian & Sean

I attended a focus group session that was in theory a brain storming session for future Animas products. It was Wednesday morning of Friends for Life and we had just flown the way too early flight in. So I was looking and feeling my best.

That reminds me, thanks for the good coffee.

The premises of the session was we were going to help draft a letter to Ian & Sean, the Animas R&D guys, to help them define what we would like to see come down the pike. Funny I thought I sent that letter two years ago and was hoping some of that had found its way into the products we would see in the next few days. No such luck.

Anyway it was a fun session. Most of us were Animas pumping families, not all. I was real please to meet Jose (I am sorry I can't recal his wifes name - I a spaz with names.) and their teen son Mateo originally from Columbia and now Orlando.

Mateo wins brother of the year. I told him so. He was there for his kid sister 11. He does a fair share, maybe more than a fair share, of the diabetes care in the family. He is a very stand up young man. His parents are rightfully proud. Hell, I am proud too and I just met him. I heard through the conference grapevine (aka my buddies at the Bayer booth) Mateo could play a mean Guitar Hero. Too bad he didn’t get a chance to go hardcore against Connor head to head. It would have been amusing.

So anyway back to the session, we did a round the room discussion of what would make diabetes care better. Most was how to make the pump better. I found I was not alone in my distaste for the food, Animas food database that is. Specifically how the thing is set up in the pump, baby food beans and all. In fact I am willing to go out on a limb and say that there was at least one other who was even more unimpressed with it than I. I gotta tell ya that is saying something too. But I still almost got a riot going fanning the flames of how it should work like an iPod’s play lists.

I seem to recall ezManager took a well earned beating.

We wanted CGM integration.
We wanted flexibility in the way the internal software was implemented.
In short we wanted the pump to be ours not some dude in the R&D lab’s.

To be honest I think Mateo really wanted to be elsewhere. Come to think me too. A cure would be cool. He can could get on with being a teen and I could get on with being a geezer.

We did do a little fictitious budget allocation. I was over ruled on the suggestion of more money for pitch forks, torches and other riot gear buy my table. I don’t think we ever got that letter drafted.

So anyway Ian & Sean if you really out there, see my letter from two years ago.

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