“How” proprietary is their connector? It might be possible to get an adapter so you can connect the pump with the old luer-lock infustion sets.
Qosina makes thousands of medical adapters. I have used their stuff before to make my own insulin “gadgets”.
Good thought. I would be surprised if an adapter is already available, because they write as if their t-lock connector design is a new original design. http://investor.tandemdiabetes.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=1037998 https://www.tandemdiabetes.com/products/infusion-sets/tlock-connector And I’d guess that they would use intellectual property laws to prevent adapters from coming on to the market since their entire goal was to capture 100% of infusion set sales to their pumpers.
Another work-around I was thinking of is to continue using luer-lock sets, but get t-lock cartridges, cut off the t-lock connector, and jam the tube into the luer-lock connector from the set and glue it in place with some kind of medically-safe glue. I didn’t pursue that thought, but if someone knows of an appropriate glue I’d certainly run the experiment.
Sorry to hear about your issues, and of course, every business decision hurts someone. Not having your preferred set type sucks.
As far as glue, I think super glue may be best bet. They sell a sterilized version that is used in some surgeries.
edit: if there really is no adapter, my son can probably gin one up on the 3D printer and somehow use sterile tubing that would connect to the existing tubing. You probably don’t want your insulin in contact with ABS or PLA
That would be pretty cool.
Does he make his own custom pump cases?
He makes custom key chains for sale at school with each team’s sport, he created a camera mount for my trailer hitch on my Wrangler, mostly he does CAD stuff for the First robotics competition team at his high school (FRC). They just got the problem released to them on Saturday. But he can CAD something up in under an hour usually. Then we have a pretty nice Taz 5 printer.
I wondered about the safety of that. There’s the question of whether the superglue has any effect on the insulin. And if any component of the superglue leaches into insulin, I would be continuously dosing myself subQ with that substance, replenished every few days, over long periods of time. This may differ from a 1-time exposure to a limited amount during a surgery.
You could possibly just make an adapter with a plastic mold. Mold one side to the pump side, and the other mold to the luer compatible infusion set you want to use.
Then the plastic mold is just reusable, it fits between the pump and the infusion set. You just rinse it with alcohol between infusions.
You could use acrylic or any number of plastics. I bet @docslotnick could give you some good suggestions on materials to use. Put a mold release agent on, let the materials set, and remove. Then you have a reusable adapter.
The resin materials I use are, unbelievably, porous. So I don’t think a dental material would be a good idea for an insulin reservoir connector.
I think @Chris 's CAD/CAM solution would work. If you could get a high enough resolution scanner to capture the detail of your connector you could print as many as you need. I’m sure there are medical grade plastics that are suitable for 3D printing.
PEEK is a great plastic to print for medical applications, but our printer doesn’t go hot enough. It needs a head that prints at over 350 degrees C. However, if someone can send me a T-lock male and female, I will have my son create a CAD file for the adapter, test it with PLA, and provide the CAD file to anyone that wants it, who can than go to a commercial printer and get it printed with PEEK.
If you are ok with ABS, we could provide those as well for no cost.
Wouldn’t you have t-lock supplies at this point?
Nope, our last shipment was still all Luer Lock. (last month). Not sure if Kaiser worked out a special deal with them or what.
How does he 3d scan the part?
He won’t, he will sit down with the parts and a pair of calipers, and design the part from scratch.
For instance, this hitch mount for a backup camera took him 30 minutes to create, fit perfectly on the first try. He used a ruler and a caliper to make the measurements.
The most interesting design issue of this adapter will be the large to small transition of the inner diameter of the insulin channel.
The stuff they use to make things like crowns is porous? That’s surprising. Seems like that would let bacteria in and then plaque would have a field day on everything that was underneath.
No, not crowns. Those are made from gold, porcelain, or zirconia and are not at all porous. But they are not practical to work with in this situation.
I was referring to resins that are used for temporary crowns or composite resin filling materials. In the case of composite fillings, they are highly polished so that the resin component of the composite is smoothly distributed on the surface, thus reducing porosity.
One thing I have always found puzzling in dentistry, is that the materials we use are meant to work best in a dry environment. Go figure.
Cool!