Extremely exciting funded NHS Trial

[Nicola M]

I got a phone call today from my diabetic nurse informing me of a trial the NHS are doing for diabetics on an insulin pump with cgm that has a hba1c above 69. This trial basically means A new insulin pump (Medtronic 780g) and cgm (guardian 4 sensor) will be provided for a year to see if they can improve your hba1c. Very excited for this as I have always struggled with my blood sugars since I’ve been a bit older and I’m hoping this can help keep me on track more whilst also providing vital data to help the NHS with diabetes care.

 

[Juicyj]

Fab news @Nicola M

Let us know how you get on.

 

[NicoleC1971]

I got a phone call today from my diabetic nurse informing me of a trial the NHS are doing for diabetics on an insulin pump with cgm that has a hba1c above 69. This trial basically means A new insulin pump (Medtronic 780g) and cgm (guardian 4 sensor) will be provided for a year to see if they can improve your hba1c. Very excited for this as I have always struggled with my blood sugars since I’ve been a bit older and I’m hoping this can help keep me on track more whilst also providing vital data to help the NHS with diabetes care.

I share your excitement as got my closed loop NHS system 3+ months ago and it has helped in tandem with my low carb diet (too lazy to count carbs) .It has helped me prevent a few hypos and keeps me on a much more even keel (more time 'in range'). Mine is tandem control iq and dexcom btw (not a trial).
I will be very interested to hear how it goes for you!

 

[GuidingSenses]

Is this the artificial pancreas pump that has just been talked about on the One Show? It looks amazing if it is

 

[Chas C]

Is this the artificial pancreas pump that has just been talked about on the One Show? It looks amazing if it is

I'm not sure it is, the one the BBC were showing is the Dana pump with Dexcom G6. I'm not 100% sure but think this is the tighter loop where pump controls BG's much more closely than the Medtronic or Tandem and it uses software developed in Cambridge (Uni ?). If I'm correct there was a licence fee to use this sw on the Dana (think it was around £840 per year). The software runs on an Android phone which controls the pump. CamAPS® FX from CamDiab Ltd. I'd expect that eventually Tandem and Medtronic will catch up with this.

 

[Chas C]

I'm not sure it is, the one the BBC were showing is the Dana pump with Dexcom G6. I'm not 100% sure but think this is the tighter loop where pump controls BG's much more closely than the Medtronic or Tandem and it uses software developed in Cambridge (Uni ?). If I'm correct there was a licence fee to use this sw on the Dana (think it was around £840 per year). The software runs on an Android phone which controls the pump. CamAPS® FX from CamDiab Ltd. I'd expect that eventually Tandem and Medtronic will catch up with this.

Comparison can be found here between all four current options. https://wchh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pdi.2350

 

[GuidingSenses]

Wow didn’t know all this existed but it looks more complicated than using my Libre sensor 2, although my sugars are currently very erratic - suspected underactive thyroid to blame

 

[Deejaypdex]

Hi @Nicola M

I was wondering if you’d gotten started yet and how you have been getting on. I’m really interested to hear about your experience of the Guardian 4 sensors, and how reliable / accurate you’ve found them to be.

I hope it’s all be going well for you!

 

[Nicola M]

Hi @Nicola M

I was wondering if you’d gotten started yet and how you have been getting on. I’m really interested to hear about your experience of the Guardian 4 sensors, and how reliable / accurate you’ve found them to be.

I hope it’s all be going well for you!

I've been on it now since the 1st of December! We aren't actually using Guardian 4 but Guardian 3, so far I've found them extremely accurate, much more so than my Libre ever was, it also helps that every 12 hours you have to do a finger prick test to calibrate the sensor. My first proper week was a bit hit and miss due to having covid so my sugars were all over the place but the closed-loop managed to bring me down into range fairly quickly and well. Day to day now I'm in range around 70%-80% of the time which is what they say to aim for as 100% isn't realistic. To put things into better perspective, before closed loop I was in range around 0%-10% of the time in 24 hours so going from that to 70%-80% is amazing progress. They're predicting that if I stay on the track I am on in 3 months' time my Hba1c could go from 78mmol/mol to around 50 mmol/mol. In short, I am doing a lot better and since being on closed-loop I haven't had a single blood sugar above 20.0 which used to be a daily occurrence for me!

 

[Deejaypdex]

@Nicola M Wow! Congratulations it sounds like it’s making a real difference for you, I’m really pleased to hear that.

Thanks a lot for sharing an update, it’s really valuable to hear about your experiences.

Very excited to give it a try when I get my 780g at the end of Jan.