Tandem t:flex™ with 480 unit reservoir approved

If you use a lot of insulin, the new Tandem t:flex™ pump is worth considering:

http://www.tandemdiabetes.com/News/2015/Tandem-Announces-FDA-Clearance-of-t-flex-Insulin-Pump/

 

This just popped up on my email! You're quick! So far, we still manage to get about 3.5 - 4 days out of the 300 units, but with my daughter being only 12, if we were in the market, I'd consider it! I remember seeing a picture of it and it is a little bulkier in the back - kind of like when you buy the high capacity battery for your laptop and the battery sticks out instead of lying flush with the bottom of the computer.

 

You just know people are going to call it the t:Rex.

 

That is great. We're not in the craziness of puberty yet, but I can see this being very appealing in another year or two. Wonder if they'll have an upgrade option?

 

My understanding after seeing it at a talk by Tandem was that the pump was the same and you could use either cartridge, but I could have misunderstood, they would only say so much pre-aproval.

 

that was my impression as well. Maybe it would be a software update so the insulin could read 420+ units on that display screen. Remember that survey a couple of months back that asked if you'd be willing to update your software via computer? That's the first thing I thought of when I saw this was approved.

 

Nope, it's a bigger cartridge and so the two types are not interchangeable. Also, as of today, Tandem isn't planning any upgrade offers. But if we flood them with comments on this, maybe they'll offer something...

 

Just our luck - my son just switched to the tslim in September, lol.

 

I took a picture of my computer (sorry it's so blurry, screen shot wouldn't work for some reason) when I was watching some Tandem presentation awhile ago. Not sure if this is the final incarnation:

 

4.5 million with Type 2 use pumps? ?? I wouldn't think they would be a big consumer group for insulin pumps though ??

 

No 4.5 million use fast acting insulin, not pumps. Don't T2's use a lot more insulin than type 1's? I don't think many use pumps at all because of the fact that they'd have to change the cartridge/reservoir so often. This large cartridge is supposed to make pumping appealing to T2's. I don't know that much about the T2 market to know if this is something they have been asking for. If it is, then Tandem made a great business decision to create this pump, in my opinion because (unfortunately) T2 is a rapidly growing, untapped market for insulin pumps.

 

In my limited experience (Type 2 90 yr old father and Type one teen) she uses far more than he does - he maybe 20u a day and even w/out insulin he can keep bgs below 200 with oral meds while you know what happens when our kids are without any for even a few hours.

 

Typically, yes due to insulin resistance. I think there are plenty of type 1s this will be useful for as well including teens, people taking steroids, and during pregnancy. I'm not sure what the average dose of insulin for a type 2 is but I think for a lot of them 480 units isn't going to go that far. I'm not sure how tandem expects to get insurance coverage for type 2s since so many of them are older and medicare will not pay for a pump without a very low c peptide level. As an aside, my type 2 grandma takes around 30 units a day (just slightly more than me). I think she actually has type 1 because she has always been thin and active and was diagnosed at a young age, insulin dependent within a few weeks of onset, and has celiac and hashimotos. She refuses a c pep or antibody test because she thinks type 1 is "worse" and doesn't want the diagnosis on her record. But she wants a pump and can't get one because medicare won't pay for it with the type 2 diagnosis.

 

Insulin, not pumps, yes. In my experience with T2s they are more of an "as needed" (sliding scale) use though, so some days they may use a lot of insulin, other days hardly any at all, depending on what they need. I DO know a lot of T2 who use a ton of lantus though, so pumping and replacing that with fast acting may be a viable option.