Eversense is clearly an attractive alternative to the G7; single device and, a big plus on the G7, in place for 180 days, or 90 in the US. It claims to be more accurate than Dexcom, though these claims are not useful to us; we care about the errors in the high and low range measured by the same standards as fingersticks.
I’m interested in why you went back to the G6; you have to replace it every ten days, not every 180 (or is there something that stops us running it to 180 in the US?) Is this the FDA issue?
Calibrations Required:
The system requires fingerstick calibrations at least twice daily, and the calibrations can only be performed when the glucose is in a steady-state. The app generates calibration reminder alerts twice daily regardless of whether a calibration was recently performed. That’s annoying!
The Transmitter:
The need to have a transmitter on the skin negates many of the benefits of the implanted sensor. Keeping the transmitter working requires a daily ritual that takes about ten minutes. You must remove the transmitter from the skin, remove the adhesive from the transmitter, charge it, re-apply the adhesive, and use a locator guide on the app to re-place it directly over the sensor.
So, that’s a total piece of junk. Duh, why would anyone want to use something like this as opposed to a Dexcom, G5(calibrations required, plus transmitter), G6(no calibrations, transmitter) or G7(none of that ****)?
I was a long time G5 user and tried Eversense using their Bridge program, self funded but steeply discounted. That got me 2 90 day sensors. After that, my insurance (still) would not cover Eversense so I went back to Dexcom.
As for pros and cons, the biggest pro for me was Eversense will alert when phone is turned off or not in range. It buzzes on your arm. I got some use out if that feature and would go back to Eversense if the 180 or 365 day sensors are approved and if I can cajole my insurer to cover it. The cons might be a deal breaker for some: Doctor’s appointments for insertion and removal, persnickety calibration algorithm, and visible scars on my arms.
My FDA criticism was more about the big picture. I think we would have more and less costly options for CGM if the FDA would lighten up. It takes years for each upgrade to get approved…I don’t see where that process adds any value to tech products like CGM.
I have been thinking about the ramifications of having the sensor and transmitter combined into a single unit. I am hoping it means that when I insert a new sensor/transmitter (stransmitter? transor?), the new one could do its 2 hour warmup while the old one is still sensing and transmitting. That way, there would be no downtime at all. That would be nice.
I bet the G7 with sensor and transmitter in one unit will not be able to to restart. Battery in the transmitter/sensor unit. Just a guess, but I bet Dexcom doesn’t like people restarting sensors.
Two thoughts. First, my understanding is that the warmup time for the G7 will be 30 minutes, not 2 hours. While we won’t know for sure about this until Dexcom actually releases the G7, 30 minutes is what is currently expected.
Second, the option of using an existing sensor while the replacement sensor is warming up would require more than one monitoring device. I suppose that might be a possibility for some. But it’s not something that I could do since the only device I have which can connect with my Dexcom transmitter is my Tandem t:slim x2 pump.
It will be interesting to see what capabilities the G7 actually has when it is eventually release.
Second, the option of using an existing sensor while the replacement sensor is warming up would require more than one monitoring device.
My phone can connect to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously; I wonder what would stop the Dexcom app (or a future version of an insulin pump) from connecting to two sensors simultaneously?
To do this, the app would have to be written to include this function. That adds complexity (co$t) to the app so I doubt that Dexcom went to the trouble to do that.
They might; covering the intervening 30 minutes (or however long it turns out to be) would fill a major hole in their interoperability with insulin pumps; losing corrections for the current 2 hours means that a completely automated system is not possible (a lot can happen to a T1 in 2 hours.) They might also figure that 30 minutes is enough to fix this.
The actual cost of software development is zero; regardless of how much devs actually get paid (Dexcom probably isn’t paying much) amortizing it over the shipped units reduces the cost to zero. Ok, there’s a lot of s/w politics here that I won’t go into, but Dexcom’s major issue would be justifying allowing parallel transmitters to multiple regulatory authorities. I don’t think that would be hard, but it’s something extra they have to do so it costs and, because it is regulatory approval, it involves many, many employees and many, many bits of paper - much more expensive than coffee for a nerd.
This provides an opportunity for Abbot who’se readying US release of the Free Style Libre 3. Could get interesting and create some competition for Dexcom.
I just wish the FDA would go away. Let’s use same process Europe uses to approve products and ban bad food products like HFCS, which I have no idea about. Seriously the FDA just gets in my way.
That would be interesting to me as well. The European CE mark doesn’t necessarily infer quality, but the newer EU MDR mark has much more stringent guidelines. As a consumer, when medications and medical devices are released in Europe they are given a thorough pre-release inspection but ultimately the consumers decide via the marketplace the efficacy of the product. I for one am happy to help sort out the good from the bad `if it gets the product to market faster and stops the backlog/graft/excessive legislation to keep little Johnny from getting hurt because he used his index finger instead of his pinky to pick his nose
Seriously the FDA just gets in my way.