[Diabetes-Talk] The Stupidity of Medtronic.

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

It's wrong but pretty standard pump language. Most companies have a similar warning. I know pens used to have similar verbiage and there was a legal action to remove this language from pen info and packaging. Wondering if something similar needs to happen with pump companies. Although, now that Medtronic is no longer making the 530G, there are not currently any pumps with work-arounds on the market.

BTW, we tried to get a group together to work on this accessibility issue, and the only thing to come out out of it was a bitchfest about using Facebook in addition to the listserve. So...

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Eileen Scrivani via Diabetes-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2019 3:33 PM
To: NFB Diabetes Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Eileen Scrivani <etscrivani at verizon.net>
Subject: [Diabetes-Talk] The Stupidity of Medtronic.

Hi All,

I got an email from Medtronic today and its subject was “Pre-travel Tips To Get You Ready For Summer.” It sounded interesting to me so I decided to click on a link in the message that brought me to their web site. I was reading along and then came their disclaimer which while I know its how they think, I couldn’t believe they had the below written out. The article was talking about the latest & greatest pumps they make which as blind diabetics we can’t use. Maybe though they should make a statement that their current pumps do not take into account accessibility rather than saying someone without vision or impaired vision should not be using insulin pump therapy. I find it especially upsetting since I just was put in touch with a person yesterday who’s current pump is going out of its warentee soon and this person is in the rough position of finding a pump to use independantly. 

By the way, folks, where is the DAN on working on this topic for getting accessibility into pumps? Any plans for the up-coming convention?

At the end of what I was reading came the following which is very annoying to me. Here’s what it states:

“Pump therapy is not recommended for people whose vision or hearing does not allow recognition of pump signals and alarms. Pump therapy is not recommended for people who are unwilling or unable to maintain contact with their healthcare professional. The safety of the MiniMed™ 670G system has not been studied in pregnant women. For complete details of the system, including product and important safety information such as indications, contraindications, warnings and precautions associated with system and its components, please consult http://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/important-safety-information#minimed-670g
  and the appropriate user guide at
http://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/download-library”

If you are interested in reading this for yourselves, , here is the link to what I was reading:

https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/loop-blog/taking-care-insulin-pump-takes-care/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=eloqua&utm_campaign=may_non-promo&utm_content=pumpcaretips_first_loopblog2


Eileen