This morning I used up my last Dexcom G6 and shifted to G7. The change did not go well, and the reason was that the Omnipod 5 iPhone app does not support the Dexcom G7. Which means I have had to shift back to the old Omnipod controller android device. It took several hours and two phone calls to Omnipod support to understand the problem, get my old controller charged up, and reinitialized. Plus, I wasted one whole pod w/insulin trying to debug the iPhone Omnipod app not recognizing the G7. I can see now that the Omnipod website does admit that they donāt have G7 support for iPhone, and Iām making this post to highlight that major deficiency.
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Guess you missed this discussion from some time ago.
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Unless you get your Omnipod supplies from a different distributor than your CGM supplier, I would have thought the distributor would have asked this question when you made the change.
My equipment supplies all come mail order, and since Iām on Medicare now (as of last August) the distributors for the two are different.
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I donāt think the distributors have much (if any) understanding of these things.
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@rcw Id recommend having a discussion with whoever wrote the scripts for you on covering all the requirements with you PRIOR to sending in the scripts. Seems like another reason to be your own strongest advocate (no intention here to shoot the messenger), but sounds like the script writer failed a basic task.
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Thanks Tom. It was from my endocrinologist, but really the more I think about this the more I believe it was my own carelessness - I leapt to a conclusion about Insuletās support for iPhone and should have known better: I have few illusions about Insuletās software development organization.
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@rcw Iāve done similarly in the past and while I like to think Iāve learned my lesson, Iām sure Iāll learn it again at some point! I just hope Insulet keeps making the Dash until an alternative as good as DIY controls has worked for me comes along! Hopefully you find a good approach that works well with minimal extraneous equipment!
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Not a qualified computer support specialistā¦ I know my own, quite rightly, just does one pump. Iām lucky enough to have him since I do something completely and utterly different; Omnipod Dash with AndroidAPS. He is ok with this but I think it might be because I do it all myself.
So I concur completely with your (@rcw 's) comment. We really still cannot expect either the medical profession or the computer salesmen to understand; we still have no choice but to do it ourselves.
And we will.
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Even as a āfavoredā Android user, Iāve had similar problems with not checking the Device Compatibility List first. Thereās a significant lag between when a new phone model comes out and when Insulet certifies it. The Google Play Store wonāt let you install the app until it is certified. So my shiny new Galaxy just sat on my dresser for almost a year while I waited to be able to use it. (Fortunately the phone upgrade was a wantānot a needāso I could just continue with my old sluggish phone.)
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@JMe Iām not sure who does the certification, presumably the app developer, or what process or āproofā is required to convince Android/Apple of certification. It seems there is little incentive, other than customer pushing, for most developers to conduct certification testing, at least for the early adopters of new phones/devices. It seems people are holding on to aging devices longerā¦probably to new device costs, job market, and region of the worldā¦making it āseemingly reasonableā for producers to delay certification. Seems to be the old āchicken or the eggā questionā¦
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I donāt want to give Insulet a complete pass, but I do understand that the wild west of phone apps isnāt a great match with the realm of medical devices. The potential consequences of a bug in an app controlling a medical device are orders of magnitude different from a game app. So both legal regulatory requirements and a reasonable CYA fear of being sued mean that there are a lot more hoops to jump through before you certify an app on a given device. And unfortunately, each OS version for each phone model is technically a different device and so requires separate testing efforts. So I understand that when I switched to the Omnipod my ability to choose my phone model (one of the things that drew me to Android over iOS) got replaced with a requirement to use a phone on Insuletās Compatibility List. But that understanding only goes so far and I do feel that they need to get more phone/OS combinations certified sooner.
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Iāve been using the Omnipod for years and have never needed to choose a conformant 'phone. I did, at one point, buy an iPhone because Insulet seemed to assert that I would need one for future use but that was, so far as I can see, because TidePool only runs on an iPhone. I bought the developer license too! $100/year total wasted money.
So I donāt use the O5; itās not āOmnipodā, itās the O5 that is the problem and it is only a problem because Insulet have to do the dance to get approval in the Android store. If they said they were an app for downloading stuff they wouldnāt have a problem.
As it is they maintain they are a health app and have to certify themselves against specific Android versions (I donāt think it is the 'phone is it? - itās the Android version!)
So what happens is that 'phone manufacturers stop updating the 'phone software (this applies to the iPhones too) because they canāt be asked; after all it doesnāt make them any money! Then, you have to get a new 'phone and everyone heads to the Bank happy.
Even AndroidAPS does this; Google changes the underlying software so AAPS canāt build on newer versions and the AAPS guys, faced with multiple incompatible versions of a piece of basically decrepit software effectively give up and say, āOk, weāll use your new PoS, better than the old PoS.ā The Who, āWonāt Get Fooled Again.ā
At moments like these I try to understand all the things all the corporations, good and bad alike, have to do to stay and I look at what all the entities, corporations and humans alike, have to do to stay and I realise I canāt really criticise any one of them.
I understand what Peter Townshend wrote and why but I also understand that particular line in āMy Generationā. Not personally of course; I was diagnosed at age 12 and in my teens I realised that I was going to die before I got old; no hope required. Today Iām still alive because of stuff diabetics did; no corporations involved, corporations donāt get diabetes. If only.
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