Pump + Libre, good or bad? Asking for a friend

[Shannon27]

I work with a lovely chap called Colin who has a great deal of experience with diabetes, with a T1D daughter and several T1D friends who are using the pump. I've told him about the Libre (having only applied my second sensor last night) and he agrees that its a fantastic way to help diabetics recover control of their blood sugars.

One thing he asked me was if there's anything going on at the moment with getting the Libre / other CGM and the pump to work together? I think this would be fantastic for current pumpers, a way to preset your limits so your Libre would send the information to the pump which would then give you the correct dose of insulin. I'm not a pumper myself but I'd like to learn more about it.

The problem with this is the Libre's current accuracy, as if there were problems with this then the results could be potentially fatal. There are so many things to take into account when you monitor and correct, such as exercise, temperature, food etc. As most of this information CAN be input into the Libre monitor, it would be fantastic if you could interface the Libre and the pump together.

Does any one know if research is being done into this? It would be a fantastic opportunity for diabetics. If anyone uses both the pump and the Libre or another CGM device please could you lend some advice that I can pass on to him?

Thanks!

Shannon x

 

[Diakat]

@tim2000s
Is probably best placed to answer this. It sounds to me like you are asking about a closed loop system.

 

[Deleted Account]

There are different CGM/Pump integrations.
I have a Animas Vibe and a Dexcom G4 - the pump is used as a receiver for the dexcom. The Vibe does not make decisions based on the CGM
I think there is a Medtronic which has this capability.

I believe this is the basis of the artificial pancreas which has been in trial.

 

[Juicyj]

I use the Medtronic 640g and could use the Enlite sensors but they are a bit pricey, however incredibly clever as they will alert the pump to switch off insulin once your hit a pre-programmed level say 4.5mmol/l. At the moment I use Libre sensors but it's not possible to link the 2, Diakat is right @tim2000s has set up his own closed loop system, so it can be done

 

[Shannon27]

I use the Medtronic 640g and could use the Enlite sensors but they are a bit pricey, however incredibly clever as they will alert the pump to switch off insulin once your hit a pre-programmed level say 4.5mmol/l. At the moment I use Libre sensors but it's not possible to link the 2, Diakat is right @tim2000s has set up his own closed loop system, so it can be done

Awesome @Juicyj I'm almost tempted to try getting on this myself! However I cannot afford the Libre sensors so after this one (which I got free from the hospital) is up then its back to finger pricking. I don't think I could afford the Enlite ones either Do you feel like you have to be really careful when wearing the pump? Like, what if you like sleeping on your belly and how secure is it if you're a restless sleeper?

 

[tim2000s]

Hi @Shannon27 - the 640G works only with the Enlite CGM system, and it's a proprietary system wholly owned by MEdtronic. There is no work going on in the wearenotwaiting community to try and link the 640G with Libre, as the Libre is not a CGM system, and requires a 3rd Party device to allow it to provide data to something like the 640G. There's also no kind of interface from the Libre reader that could be connected to the 640G.

What is going on is Medtronic have built the 670G which is a full Hybrid Closed Loop solution and adjusts insulin both up and down based on the glucose data and food data it receives. It also allows a high temporary glucose target to be set to account for exercise. This is currently only available in the US and there hasn't been an announcement as to when it's available in Europe.

In the meantime, the WeAreNotWaiting community has built OpenAPS, Loop and AndroidAPS, all of which are Hybrid Closed Loop systems, and currently work with the older Medtronic pumps, plus the DanaR. It has recently cracked the communication protocols for the OmniPod and Roche Spirit Combo, so is working on decoding the instruction set for those pumps too. These work with a variety of CGM systems. There are a few people using the Libre as a mechanism to supply glucose data with the third party devices I described.

If you want to find out more, have a look at http://www.diabettech.com/looping-a-guide