Medtronic 640g and guardian cgm

Djdiabetic said:

Hi there,

Moving onto the Medtronic and looking at gcm options I'm on the libre just how. When I get the Medtronic would I be able to buy the guardian sensors and not need the transmitter or would I need to order both in order to use this with the Medtronic?

Thanks in advance

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You would buy the Enlite sensors and use them with the Guardian Link Transmitter to talk to your pump.

As far as I'm aware, the Guardian Connect uses the same Enlite sensors, but bluetooth from the Guardian Connect Transmitter to communicate with the iPhone only.

Medtronic are stupid in that all their CGM systems seem to have word Guardian incorporated somewhere! So it makes it a bit awkward to work out what's what.

I'll tag some users of various systems for you @tim2000s , @donnellysdogs, @catapillar. Between them, I think they've used them all.

On mdi the guardian connect sensors work direct to an iphone and you can have up to 5 people notified of low or high readings.

I dont know much about the sensors that read to their pump.

The guardian connect is new out and currently only available to patients that have funding in place direct with their CCG paying.

It will be available to all patients to purchase if they wish to self fund very soon.

I do not tolerate pump cannulas so have to keep to MDI.

I'm also quite odd because I'm having to have two different basal insulins. This has only been identified due to the CGM.

The libre doesnt have enough detail for me to manage..

GrantGam said:

You would buy the Enlite sensors and use them with the Guardian Link Transmitter to talk to your pump.

As far as I'm aware, the Guardian Connect uses the same Enlite sensors, but bluetooth from the Guardian Connect Transmitter to communicate with the iPhone only.

Medtronic are stupid in that all their CGM systems seem to have word Guardian incorporated somewhere! So it makes it a bit awkward to work out what's what.

I'll tag some users of various systems for you @tim2000s , @donnellysdogs, @catapillar. Between them, I think they've used them all.

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@GrantGam - totally agree with you about the way Medtronic have named their CGM transmitters. What is even more stupid though is that Medtronic did not think far enough ahead and decide upon a transmitter that could communicate to both a Bluetooth device (aka a smartphone) and a pump simultaneously! That would give us the best of both worlds - and it would be a cost saver to Medtronic as they only need to produce and support one product that can be used by the Diabetes community - T1s on pumps & MDI, and even T2s who want to do CGM, but then there's the cost, and that's a whole new issue in it's own right!

PI3.14 said:

@GrantGam - totally agree with you about the way Medtronic have named their CGM transmitters.

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At least it's not just me then Their websites are also terrible, very clumsily laid out and awkward to navigate. There's me thinking I was competent at browsing the Internet as well!

PI3.14 said:

@GrantGamWhat is even more stupid though is that Medtronic did not think far enough ahead and decide upon a transmitter that could communicate to both a Bluetooth device (aka a smartphone) and a pump simultaneously! That would give us the best of both worlds - and it would be a cost saver to Medtronic as they only need to produce and support one product that can be used by the Diabetes community - T1s on pumps & MDI, and even T2s who want to do CGM, but then there's the cost, and that's a whole new issue in it's own right!

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If combining a Bluetooth module and a radio transmitter made the transmitter too bulky, or the battery life even worse, then I could understand why they've chosen not to go down that path.

But I'm quietly confident that it mainly concerns them turning over more profit by having a single device in each user market. One for MDI, one for pump therapy, etc.

At the end of the day, these companies are first and foremost profit machines.

The Guardian 2 (rev 2) Transmitter that works with the 640G (and as far as I am aware, the 670G transmitter) doesn't use Bluetooth because it's a lot less secure than Zigbee, the protocol that Medtronic has implemented for the pump connections. (Or you could argue that they think it's their data and therefore they don't want people like "us" being able to access it in like we can with Dexcom)

On a standalone CGM, they argue that the system to which it is talking is not dosing insulin and therefore doesn't need to be as secure as you can't kill someone with it.

Of course I couldn't possibly comment on the cost implications of this....

tim2000s said:

On a standalone CGM, they argue that the system to which it is talking is not dosing insulin and therefore doesn't need to be as secure as you can't kill someone

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Yet Dexcom uses Bluetooth in the G5, which has FDA approval for using the CGM values for dosing, and Bigfoot is planning on using the G5 or G6 in its clinical trial of its closed loop pump.
I think you are right - it's about profit

PI3.14 said:

Yet Dexcom uses Bluetooth in the G5, which has FDA approval for using the CGM values for dosing,

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Indeed, but in order to dose off it, you have to intervene as a human, as it's not automated. With the 670G it is automatically giving you insulin. Having said that, I'm using a G5 to drive my automated dosing on OpenAPS, precisely because we can get to the data.....