[Diabetes-talk] accessible Insulin pumps

Sun Jun 23 17:54:37 UTC 2013

Hi Julie!
First, welcome to the list. This group is great at batting things around
together and anything else we need here. I've heard that Prodigy has given
up on the talking insulin pump. I can't imagine what Roche is coming out
with. But what they have now is a kind of bare bones basic pump with all of
the advanced functionality put into a remote or a PDA. Their current pump
does beep with keypad presses, but using just the stand-alone pump puts us a
good 20 years behind everyone else. No insulin on board feature, no pump
figuring anything out for you. The trouble with many of the newer pumps or
remotes is that everyone is moving to wizards. So in order to give a simple
bolus, first you have to answer questions about what your BG is, whether or
not you plan to eat, bla bla bla. And since these pumps don't talk, it's
tougher to count our way through things. I've been using the Cozmo by Smiths
Medical, but unfortunately it's no longer available. It's not completely
accessible but does have good keypad beeps, the ability to customize menus
and get stuff I don't want out of the way, and the ability to set things in
software on my computer and then fire everything to my pump via an infrared
connection. But my warranty is up so I'm now looking at what's out there.
I'm not thrilled, for sure. 
Depending on where you live, you could take a look at a new one coming out
called The Snap Pump, which does have some audible feedback and uses
pre-filled cartridges. It's out in a few states at the moment. Mine isn't
one of them though. Probably, in a month or so I'll get back to serious
snooping. I really have no idea what I'm going to do though. But I'll
definitely call Roche and see what they say to me.
But these days, the FDA is so backed up that I don't see how any company can
realistically promise anything close to a release date. Although the Tandem
T-slim did get it done this year. That's the pump I'd get were I sighted. It
has the features I want and even has nice audible feedback. But it's a
touch-screen pump. I still checked it out and one big show-stopper is that
even filling the cartridge involves dialogs. If it thinks you've missed some
basal delivery during the process of filling and loading the cartridge, it
asks you what you want it to do. There would be no way for us to know if
that dialog appeared or not. And loading that cartridge along with a few
other basic tasks are on my list of things I must be able to do myself if I
ever want to do things like travel away from home. So as badly as I want
this pump, it can't be. 
But stick around. There are several people using pumps here and we do share
experiences, ask questions, grumble and plan in this group. So thanks for
joining the group.
Veronica

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-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Julie Graham
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2013 10:13 AM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] accessible Insulin pumps

Vapor ware?  you don't believe these companies will release a talking or 
accessible pump?  i'm not too sure about the prodigy one but i've been told 
about the Roche INSIGHT pump by my DSN and by the Roche rep for this area. 
Perhaps it won't talk but I was told they were working on something to be 
released next year which was designed with blind people in mind
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "Diabetes Talk for the Blind" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2013 6:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] accessible Insulin pumps

>I consider all the examples you cite below complete vapor ware. More later.
>
> Mike Freeman
>
>
> On Jun 23, 2013, at 7:58, "Julie Graham" <orvil_7 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I've only just joined this mailing list and was wondering if anyone had 
>> any info on the IQ pump by prodigy?  when it's to be released or how it 
>> works?  Also Roche are to release a new pump in 2014 which has been 
>> designed with the blind and partially sighted in mind or so i'm told.
>>
>> Driving me crazy when I get no answer from the companies.
>>
>> Any information would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Julie Graham
>> _______________________________________________
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