It seems with all the Olympics coverage I forgot to write.
It isn’t that we forgot about diabetes. We are in the midst of some over due basal rate corrections for the soon to be 5th grader. It is that the Olympics are just way more fun.
Delaney is into the games and even more into the coverage. Well more precisely the sponsorship of the coverage. She is so tuned into the commercials that we started a game of announcing what the ad is as soon as one starts. She is very good at it. So good it gives one a bit of concern about the effectiveness of advertising on pre-teens. However she isn’t exactly in the market for a Audi, GM, Toyota or Nissan.
Next to commercials, swimming was way the favorite in our house. I’ll try to be a little more attentive to writing this week.
August 18, 2008
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.
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.
August 6, 2008
To Ping Two
I wore a Ping at Friends For Life. Mrs. YDMV and I put them on instead of the T1 kids. Delaney already had on the BatGirl belt and Connor, being a teen was hustled off site.
The Ping is a little bigger than a 12xx or 2020 Animas pump. Not a lot bigger but enough form me to notice being used to handling a 1250. Just about the same size as the CosMore I was also wearing. It, the Ping not the Cosmo, says One Touch on the front where it would say Animas if it were any other model. I noticed that too. It does say Animas on the back.
The pump comes in groovy colors but mine was black. The screen was way easier to read than a 1250. I assume it is the same screen as a 2020. Very nice, I probably could even read it at night at 2:00 am without my reading glasses. The bright screen was the news last year but nobody was talking about it now.
The Ping part is it talks to a new One Touch Ping meter. The meter says One Touch on the front too. It is a remote and can drive the pump. The meter is about the size of a One Touch Ultra Smart, maybe a tad fatter. One Touch moved the food database out of the pump and into the meter.
That means you have to use the meter to use the food database. I don’t see that as a big deal because the food database usability is substantially equivalent to what it has been. Either way, in the pump or in the meter, it isn’t particularly worth the effort to use. It still has cumbersome menus and baby food and beans are still the top two spots for food in the menus system. Dudes think iPod play lists.
The meter does all the bolus calculations and can send it over to the pump. That is a little bit handy. We agreed that at time it would be nice if Delaney was in a dress. Also for parents of little kids so they can remote control the pump.
Sadly the meter has the same monochrome screen a One Touch Ultra Smart has. Same is a word that here means, marginally readable. It was easy to see why nobody was talking about screens. OK it is back lit. Compared to the pump screen (and since you have both with you all the time the comparison is hard to miss) the meter screen is, to be nice, crap.
There are some menu changes in the Ping. Some of the set up screens were more readable, apparently there were in the 2020 too. They added a screen to code the meter to the pump. Strangely when Kimball and I first bloused, at the exact some time, in the quickie training class it crashed my pump. We had to re-code the pump to the meter. The pump person thought it was because we bloused at the same time. I think it is more likely, given that it was real early, that she coded both meter to the same pump before we showed up for the first pump trial of a long day but I don’t know. Didn’t happen again.
So the big question everyone had when the Ping was announced was does it do CGM? The answer - all the wonderful communications stuff the Ping does. In other words Ping doesn’t do CGM.
They said they hope to have a product in late 2009 or 2010. Nobody would answer questions about upgrades. The stock response to, ‘Can the software in the pump, meter or computer application handle the volume of data from a CGM?’ was ‘When we have a CGM product the software available then will then work with CGM data.’
The other big question was how much is a meter if you loose it - Two Hundred Bucks. OUCH!
Neither Kimball nor I was particularly impressed with Ping. The meter screen is a joke compared to the pump’s. The communications are a little cool but not revolutionary and the meter is gonna get lost. While the pumps come in colors nobody was saying anything about meter colors other than ‘Did you see the new Mini colors Blue and Purple!’ J&J is a family of companies. Every big family one member that needs to get with the program, One Touch is The J&J family’s but that is another post.
I wouldn’t upgrade a 2020 to a Ping unless it was free and if the meter is 200 beans I can’t see it being a free upgrade. Likewise neither of the T1 kids were impressed enough to want to try a Ping for any appreciable amount of time.
DexCom says they expect to have CGM integration for the Animas before the Pod. Summer of 2009 is the goal. That could slip with regulatory issues. So that means Ping II is a year maybe a little more away.
Connor will decide what pump he wants when is 4 years are up in April. It is his diabetes, his body, his choice. I suspect he will want to stick with what he knows.
That is OK. Ping is just another pump.
Pumping is about more than infusing insulin. Johnson and Johnson is making a commitment to an expanded definition of type 1 care. The best example is that the best speakers at Friends for Life were J&J’s guys. Hell FFL is a J&J company new too. That matters. It would be nice if the technology was a little better too but diabetes isn’t about technology. It is about life.
The Ping is a little bigger than a 12xx or 2020 Animas pump. Not a lot bigger but enough form me to notice being used to handling a 1250. Just about the same size as the CosMore I was also wearing. It, the Ping not the Cosmo, says One Touch on the front where it would say Animas if it were any other model. I noticed that too. It does say Animas on the back.
The pump comes in groovy colors but mine was black. The screen was way easier to read than a 1250. I assume it is the same screen as a 2020. Very nice, I probably could even read it at night at 2:00 am without my reading glasses. The bright screen was the news last year but nobody was talking about it now.
The Ping part is it talks to a new One Touch Ping meter. The meter says One Touch on the front too. It is a remote and can drive the pump. The meter is about the size of a One Touch Ultra Smart, maybe a tad fatter. One Touch moved the food database out of the pump and into the meter.
That means you have to use the meter to use the food database. I don’t see that as a big deal because the food database usability is substantially equivalent to what it has been. Either way, in the pump or in the meter, it isn’t particularly worth the effort to use. It still has cumbersome menus and baby food and beans are still the top two spots for food in the menus system. Dudes think iPod play lists.
The meter does all the bolus calculations and can send it over to the pump. That is a little bit handy. We agreed that at time it would be nice if Delaney was in a dress. Also for parents of little kids so they can remote control the pump.
Sadly the meter has the same monochrome screen a One Touch Ultra Smart has. Same is a word that here means, marginally readable. It was easy to see why nobody was talking about screens. OK it is back lit. Compared to the pump screen (and since you have both with you all the time the comparison is hard to miss) the meter screen is, to be nice, crap.
There are some menu changes in the Ping. Some of the set up screens were more readable, apparently there were in the 2020 too. They added a screen to code the meter to the pump. Strangely when Kimball and I first bloused, at the exact some time, in the quickie training class it crashed my pump. We had to re-code the pump to the meter. The pump person thought it was because we bloused at the same time. I think it is more likely, given that it was real early, that she coded both meter to the same pump before we showed up for the first pump trial of a long day but I don’t know. Didn’t happen again.
So the big question everyone had when the Ping was announced was does it do CGM? The answer - all the wonderful communications stuff the Ping does. In other words Ping doesn’t do CGM.
They said they hope to have a product in late 2009 or 2010. Nobody would answer questions about upgrades. The stock response to, ‘Can the software in the pump, meter or computer application handle the volume of data from a CGM?’ was ‘When we have a CGM product the software available then will then work with CGM data.’
The other big question was how much is a meter if you loose it - Two Hundred Bucks. OUCH!
Neither Kimball nor I was particularly impressed with Ping. The meter screen is a joke compared to the pump’s. The communications are a little cool but not revolutionary and the meter is gonna get lost. While the pumps come in colors nobody was saying anything about meter colors other than ‘Did you see the new Mini colors Blue and Purple!’ J&J is a family of companies. Every big family one member that needs to get with the program, One Touch is The J&J family’s but that is another post.
I wouldn’t upgrade a 2020 to a Ping unless it was free and if the meter is 200 beans I can’t see it being a free upgrade. Likewise neither of the T1 kids were impressed enough to want to try a Ping for any appreciable amount of time.
DexCom says they expect to have CGM integration for the Animas before the Pod. Summer of 2009 is the goal. That could slip with regulatory issues. So that means Ping II is a year maybe a little more away.
Connor will decide what pump he wants when is 4 years are up in April. It is his diabetes, his body, his choice. I suspect he will want to stick with what he knows.
That is OK. Ping is just another pump.
Pumping is about more than infusing insulin. Johnson and Johnson is making a commitment to an expanded definition of type 1 care. The best example is that the best speakers at Friends for Life were J&J’s guys. Hell FFL is a J&J company new too. That matters. It would be nice if the technology was a little better too but diabetes isn’t about technology. It is about life.
From The News Wire: DexCom on Animas and Podd
From DexCom's Earnings Call as reported on Seeking Alpha - Their thoughts on CGM and Pumps and the next generations of the DexCom product.
Terry Gregg - DexCom President
..Our continued goal is to complete all development, clinical and regulatory efforts with Animas and be positioned to launch our first product during the summer of 2009. But, as you are well aware, the timing of the regulatory process is uncertain we would expect to combine product with Insulet to follow later in 2009.
We are also pleased to report that we have filed a PMA supplement for a third generation continuous glucose monitoring system with the Food and Drug Administration. Data from our approval support trial demonstrated significant improvements in system on time and improved accuracy as compared to our current product. In addition our third generation system will include twin doors to complement our turn graph and event entry capabilities such insulin intake, (inaudible) exercise as well as configurable alarms.
Keep inline with generation alliterations we continue to make progress on our fourth generation product. We expect this design to incorporate an enhanced membrane system, we have been greater accuracy and be suited for large volume production. Additionally our fifth generation sensor is now being tested in humans in connection with our in-hospital product.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/89295-dexcom-inc-q2-2008-earnings-call-transcript?source=wl_sidebar&page=3
August 5, 2008
I Would Rather Drive a Mini Cooper
Friends for Life is about people. Well people getting stuff from vendors in the expedition hall. Some vendors do test drives. It was great fun joking around with them while putting all the junk on. Delaney was more into the Test Drives than I had expected. She wore a Cosmo, a MiniMed with a CGM and of course there was the trusty 1250 doing the real pumping. Part of her freedom to run around was to carry her cell, meter and some glucose.
That is a lot of stuff. She also collected enough shinny beads, trinkets, talismans, yoyos, pedometers and assorted branded backpacks to buy back Manhattan from the Indians at current market rates.
She was on the go all the time. (Hence the crummy picture) At one point I was concerned that all that weight may have more than equal and very opposite reaction with the elastic waist band of her shorts. Fortunately she found the solution to this potential crisis by hanging all this stuff from the belt of her pump pouch.
She had a utility belt of high tech gadgetry that would put Batman to shame. At one point I realized that the manufacturers suggested retail price of all this stuff the kid was wandering around with was more than a new Mini Cooper.
I would rather have a Mini Cooper than need a MiniMed.
August 4, 2008
Wack -a- Meter Friends Videos
I'll Link Wack -a- Meter Videos here as I get them so keep 'm coming Kids!
Our buddy Evansdad from CWD stepped up with our first Friend's of YDMV Wack-a-Meter Video.
Our buddy Evansdad from CWD stepped up with our first Friend's of YDMV Wack-a-Meter Video.
August 3, 2008
Smash -a- Meter
It Is Time We Take Joe Solowiejczyk's Advice.
(Even if we can't pronounce his name.)
Life isn't just about numbers. Type 1 kids have to do what they need to do to stay health. This includes mentally healthy.
We all need to understand it is OK to hate diabetes. What is a more prominent symbol of their diabetes than the ever present meter and its numbers?
Kill the Beast!
Totally surprise your type 1 family member by stopping the car, getting the meter out and running it over. Kill the meter. If running it over with the car does not do it, smash it with a hammer or a rock.
Let your family know it OK to dislike diabetes - take it out your frustrations on a meter!
Think Wack a Mole with out a padded wacker. Gallagher were are you when we need you?
My great thanks to Joe at Friends For Life for suggesting this. I for one am convinced it helps. (It helps to have a backup meter before you sacrifice one to mental health too, reality sucks.)
So my friends here is the first ever YDMV video challenge. Smash a meter. Put the video on YouTube. Anyone have an asphalt roller? Just exactly how flat can we get one of these things?
More Stupid Meter Tricks
(Even if we can't pronounce his name.)
Life isn't just about numbers. Type 1 kids have to do what they need to do to stay health. This includes mentally healthy.
We all need to understand it is OK to hate diabetes. What is a more prominent symbol of their diabetes than the ever present meter and its numbers?
Kill the Beast!
Totally surprise your type 1 family member by stopping the car, getting the meter out and running it over. Kill the meter. If running it over with the car does not do it, smash it with a hammer or a rock.
Let your family know it OK to dislike diabetes - take it out your frustrations on a meter!
Think Wack a Mole with out a padded wacker. Gallagher were are you when we need you?
My great thanks to Joe at Friends For Life for suggesting this. I for one am convinced it helps. (It helps to have a backup meter before you sacrifice one to mental health too, reality sucks.)
So my friends here is the first ever YDMV video challenge. Smash a meter. Put the video on YouTube. Anyone have an asphalt roller? Just exactly how flat can we get one of these things?
More Stupid Meter Tricks
You're Not Hardcore
Unless youlive hardcore.
- Jack Black
School of Rock
If you are used to playing Guitar Hero laying down - then you have to lay down.
They guys from Bayer brought Guitar Hero and two guitars (twice as many as any other vendor!). Connor is hard core so no standing on the little podium thing.
One of the cool thing about FFL is getting the kids involved. In session and with the stuff. Sadly this year the event was so well attended that they had to find other space for the teens, off site. As a result the teens didn't get a lot of time in the exhibit hall.
If I was one of the exhibitors I think that would have irritated me and had me on the organizers for either a refund or a schedule change. This is the demographic that they want to influence but had little shot at.
Well unless they were hard core.
August 2, 2008
What's Important
I had a teacher in college who regularly asked in lectures "What's Important?" I wrote down what he said next 'cause it was gonna be the a test.They say a picture is worth a thousand words here is a thousand words worth of what's important about Friends for Life. This is Joe, Paul and the teens from eastern Europe. It's getting late, folks are heading to bed, all the tables are clear but one. All the kids are clearly involved in the conversation.
The body language was interesting. At times, the kids were leaning in paying attention. At other times Joe and Paul were doing the leaning in hands on the table listening to what the kids were saying.
This is what Friends for Life is about. It is what Joe and Paul are all about. More than everything else Friends For Life is about personal contact. The give and take of understand what living with type 1 is like.
I have no clue what they were talking about. That's their business. What the picture says to me is that there are a lot of tables we can sit at. There are times when sitting at a table with type 1 peers and mentors is the only one that counts.
What is important? Friends For Life.
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