Brian- That’s good to know about the sensor that is one of my concerns. I think my insurance company is just plain weird, but I’m getting pretty good at playing their game so that my supplies are getting covered :)
Hayley,
David Kliff does some good stuff but I don't expect him to be 100% right and with no releases from any Abbott source to back this up, it still seems like guess work. I will grant you, educated guess work but not sufficient enough to start digging the grave - especially with the release of the upgraded version in the UK and the renewed commitments from Omnipod, it seems like Abbott and their Navigator have some forward momentum building.
I believe it could happen, but I do disagree with you about Mr. Kliff being a conclusive source. Really, time will tell and I guess I am always more on the hopeful side that the competition will stay thick and that we will have more, not fewer vendors from which to choose...
Cheers!
A-D
Okay everyone - I think I ought to add a personal note here, too - because i've been answering quickly and that often (see most always) means i'm doing a poor job of relating some other important points:
Hayley,
It has just (I am sometimes a little slow) occurred to me that the tone and tenor of my responses is not coming through very well. I want to take a second to say how grateful I am for your postings and the information you are putting out here! For me, debate and discussion oft go hand and hand and are the two are the primary drivers for my learning and wrapping my mind around a subject. Your time and patience as I am piecing things together is appreciated. I think you are fantastic and your perspectives are invaluable around here!
Cheers!
A-D
I appreciate both responses. Admittedly, the basis for my posts have not been hard evidence. However, whispers of a demise - particularly among the professional diabetes community - should not be overlooked. My posts are based on experience. With vivid memory of the rumblings prior to the Glucowatch and Cozmo downfalls, I would urge consumers to weigh this information prior to jumping into a sinking ship.
As for the pairing of CGM to OmniPod - Dexcom has partnered with both Animas and Insulet and is expected to have sensors integrated with both pumps in the next year.
Not everything that is successful in the US will be successful in Europe and vice versa. I would invite you to investigate the most common therapeutic approaches in the UK, Germany and France. It might offer some insight into the predictive value that marketing abroad holds for the future of a product in the US.
Hope that helps a little. History sometimes repeats itself. If I were a betting diabetic, my money would be on the slowdown and ultimate removal of the Navigator from the US market in the next year or two.
i use the freestyle navigator and it works really well because when i drop low at night the alarm goes off and then i just take a glucose tablet. it also has alarms for projected low, projected high, high, and low. you don't feel like you are wearing the sensor and you only have to do 4 pricking per sensor which is really nice. it makes you feel more like everyone else. i have been using it since the beginning of november and i love it! you also have line graphs to see where you are and you have past history and now you can put the information on the computer so you dont lose it, the reciever saves up to i think about 60 days of information. my docotor told me they are planning on creating a pump that works with the navigator!
hope that helps with the decision making!
Hi Tara-
I'm late to the game, as I just joined this group, so you may have already made your choice. I'll share my 2 cents just in case!
I just started on the Dexcom last week and I'm already hooked. I used the Navigator as part of the artificial pancreas study and loved it, but when it came time to buy I went with Dexcom instead. My reasons for choosing dexcom: Small sensor, sensors last 7+ days, faster start up time, and tech support has been great.
That said, the primary reason I chose Dexcom is because I'm on an Animas Ping pump, which communicates wirelessly with my one touch monitor. I didn't want to have to switch to freestyle strips in order to use the Navigator. The Navigator has the meter as part of the device which is much less cumbersome and you don't have to manually input your bg's so it really makes it convienent. If I wasn't on the Ping I'd probably have chosen the Navigator. From my experience both the navigator and the dexcom are super accurate. I think you'd be happy with either one.
I also used the medtronic CGM for a few days and found it to be very inaccurate.
Hi Lauren-
Thanks for all this information, I have not made my choice yet but really think once I do its going to be the Dexcom! My current MiniMed pump also communicates with my one touch so changing to the Navigator would mean manual input for me too. I like the sensor for the Dexcom the best so far. I have not been able to try any of the out but I was able to look all of at them. Thanks again to everyone for all their input it has helped so much!
Hi Lauren-
Thanks for all this information, I have not made my choice yet but really think once I do its going to be the Dexcom! My current MiniMed pump also communicates with my one touch so changing to the Navigator would mean manual input for me too. I like the sensor for the Dexcom the best so far. I have not been able to try any of the out but I was able to look all of at them. Thanks again to everyone for all their input it has helped so much!
Hi Tara,
I have been using the Dexcom Seven Plus for about a month. Not very long, but my experience thus far has been excellent. It only took two times of inserting the sensor pod using the instructions to feel pretty confident with the process. It is wonderful, I've discovered lows that I did not realize I was having at night and it is helping me to do a better job of keeping my post meal readings closer to normal range. I think that all type ones should have one.
It seems I can be more than 5' away from the receiver and still get readings, unless it's on the base charging. A blood glucose meter check is required every 12 hours. My experience so far (from my perspective) is that the difference between the readings between my blood glucose meter and the Dexcom Seven Plus are from 0 to around 15 if my glucose is 40-120. The difference seems to be from around 15-40 if it's in the 200's range. Entering a reading from my blood glucose meter seems to correct the variance usually to a variance of around 10 or so (again from my perspective). I occasionally enter an extra reading, but I do not have to do it very often.
I do not have any experience with other CGM's, but my doctor recommended the Dexcom due to the agreements that have been formed between Dexcom and Animas and Dexcom and Omnipod. She told me that there was a combined insulin pump and cgm that she was told was to be available the first part of the year. I read Haley's responses and what I was told matches up with what she has told you which is exciting. I just read today that an artificial pancreas would not be available right away, so my hope is that the combination of the insulin pumps and cgm's will combine the receivers. I hope this helps!
Thank you,
PT
Pam- thanks for all the helpful information! I contacted Dexcom yesterday to start the process, so I finally made my decision! I am so excited and wish I could start it today :) I had a somewhat scary low last night that I know having a CGM would have prevented. I am just hoping my insurance company feels that same way.
Thanks to everyone- you all helped make this decison much easier!
Ok I need everyone’s help again!
I finally decided to go with the Dexcom so I called them. It took them a little over a week to get back to me. They said they had good news, my insurance was going to cover 80%, I was completely surprised, HOWEVER my insurance company does not work with Dexcom so the rep I was talking to said he was going to send my paperwork over to their outside distributor, "Care Centrics". They said they would be back to me in 40 days! I am so confused, why do I have to wait 40 days? I tried to look up “Care Centrics” online but could not find anything. Does anyone else get their CGM from an outside distributor?
Tara, contact your insurance company and find out who their 'preferred DME providers" are...and give them a call and see if they can get the Dexcom for you (at hopefully a lower copay). It sounds like Dexcom knows about a possible preferred provider (care centrics).
I'd also give Dexcom a call back and get the care centrics number directly from them. No sense in going round in circles and having Dexcom be the middleman. perhaps by contacting CareCentrics, you can find out what the 40 day delay is all about!
Good luck!
Michelle
MM722 and MM CGMS
Hi Tara,
I also had to get my Dexcom through an outside distributor, although it was not care centrix. This is not an unusual arrangement, however it does seem really odd that it would take them 40 days. I think a lot of insurance companies are just starting to provide coverage for CGM's so they are still working out the kinks.
Not sure if this is the company they are referring to, but I'm assuming it is: http://www.carecentrix.com/index.asp
I had similar frustration with communication from Dexcom when trying to get my CGM, but I'm happy to report that since getting it, working with the Dexcom technical staff has been great so far- very different than on the ordering end.
Good luck!
Lauren
Type 1, Dx 1982
Animas Ping/ Dexcom 7
I am on the Minimed Paradigm and had the CGM with it. I had a lot of trouble with calibration and it only works 3 days before you have to reset it (which caused many of the calibration issues). It was also a large needle to insert. I just got the Dexcom and will be trained on it tomorrow. So far - it looks like it may be easier to inject the sensor. The Minimed CGM has a spring loaded device to inject whereas the Dexcom you can control how fast/slow it goes in because it is a plunger type device without the spring loading. The needle is also thinner and the sensor lasts 7 days. I will be happy to let you know how it goes.
I'll keep you posted.
I took your advise and called this "care centrics" company, well actually I called Dexcom to get their number, who told me to call "Gentiva" who then told me to call "Assurant Health" who then finally gave me the number to "Care Centrics" but after finally getting a live person I called the wrong office so they gave me the correct number! I got my insurance information submitted and the lady told me no way was it going to take 40 days and can't understand why the guy told me that!
DandDDeb- please keep me posted!
the minimed one is great! the first one i put in we had so much trouble with but then it turned out to be faulty. we got a free replacment one. that is the only one that has given us even a bit of a problem
[quote user="Hayley"]
I'm 18 days away from having to stop endorsing individual products so today I will tell you - hands down best device available is the Dexcom. No questions.
[/quote]
Hayley, are you going to start working as a rep for one of the companies? What information exactly is better on the Dexcom?
I'm looking to get my first pump and am ordering the Minimed with hopes of eventually getting the CGM as well....
BP
Bryan,
If you are interested in data management, the Medtronic pump + sensor puts all of your insulin delivery and sugar sensor data into the same software package, as do the Omnipod and Navigator (these two use the Copilot software). I know a number of people have concerns about Abbott's commitment to the Navigator product line. I do see some hope both in their written response to me that they intend to keep it going along with their involvement in the artificial pancreas project... Having used two of the Dexcom models, the newer Medtronic Guardian and the Navigator, I can say that all of these devices worked differently for me and they are young enough in their genesis that I think it makes sense to try them all if possible to see which works best for you... All had some advantages. For me the Dex was great at getting a jump on lows during the day but at night, it would false alarm on me all night long while I was in the 80-100 range making sleep a challenge.
I think I heard that Dex was going to have the ability to dump data to the Ping software or vice-versa but I don't know where that stands...
That said, I am one of the most medically under-educated of the group here - so I would take my opinion with some amount of skepticism...
Cheers!
A-D
I did see a neat bit on the Artificial Pancreas Project here:
Ha! No, you'd think from my posts that's what I was doing though! ;-)
No, I'm starting my career as a practicing physician and its inappropriate for me to provide biased opinions to patients, particularly in the population that I aim to care for. My title seems add influence to positions I take and its important for patients to retain their autonomy and make their decisions independently. Kind of an abuse of power.
That being said, I CAN tell you that Dexcom supports a 5 minute lag time between blood glucose and Dexcom glucose values, whereas Minimed considers 20 minutes acceptable. This translates to real-time value in the Dexcom. Both offer trending value that people can use to alter their management. Dexcom sensors are FDA approved for 7 days but can last up to 14. Minimed sensors are FDA approved for 3 days and can last for 6 or sometimes more on rare occasions. Dexcom has a liberal replacement policy. I'm uncertain of Minimed's replacement policy. One of the key differences in the companies is the representation by the pharmaceutical sales reps. Minimed has an army of sales reps whereas Dexcom has one or 2 per multi-state territory. This actually has no impact on the user as 99.9% of technical support is provided over the phone. Minimed dominates the pump market in most regions simply based on their aggressive sales team. They target both the physicians and patients and this strategy has been very effective.
One think that's important to know: the Dexcom is anticipated to be integrated with the Animas Ping by December January. So if you are looking at an integrated system, it would be worth looking at Animas AND Minimed. You'd have to evaluate Dexcom independently but it would be the same technology of each independent system combined if that makes sense.
I think that is as unbiased as I can get. I'm working on it!