Medtronic Minimed, maker of the 508 and Paradigm insulin pumps, announces the Paradigm 512 insulin pump, the first to include a wireless link to a blood glucose monitor.
What is it? The Paradigm 512 is a full-featured Minimed insulin pump incorporating a wireless receiver and computer circuitry. When the pump user tests blood glucose with the (included) Paradigmlink blood glucose monitor (built for Minimed by BD, incorporating BD Logic features and technology), the readings are transmitted to the insulin pump, which automatically calculates most appropriate basal and bolus dosages. All the user has to do is read the screen (wouldn't it be nice if it would "speak" the results of its computations?), "accept or modify those readings," push a button, and the pump does the rest.
Although the "self-adjusting insulin pump" has been a dream for years, this is the first linkage between pump and meter to achieve FDA Marketing Approval. It is historic.
What it Isn't
Minimed has an implantable (subcutaneous) insulin pump, the "Minimed 2007," now available in the EU only. Minimed has the CGMS continuous glucose monitoring system, which attaches with a catheter, much like an insulin pump. Neither is used here.
The 512 pump is very conventional, and the Paradigmlink meter, while based on the state-of-the-art BD Logic, is still a fairly conventional finger-stick meter. The two components are linked, but the system's blood glucose data are generated by conventional finger-stick blood tests. This is not yet a "continuous" or "non-invasive" meter-pump combination. We are closer, but not yet to the "artificial pancreas."
Someday soon, from Minimed or one of its competitors, we hope to see a continuous, self-adjusting meter-pump combination. Such a system would both do away with ponderous computations (as does the 512) and with the need to finger-stick. Such a system could legitimately be called an "artificial pancreas," and we're not there yet.
For more information on the Minimed Paradigm 512 pump and Paradigmlink meter, telephone: 1-888-7837; or visit the following Web site: www.minimed.com/paradigmlink