Bad Experiences With Medtronic Minimed

[glass]

The Medtronic Minimed Continuous Glucose Monitoring system is extremely unreliable. Despite careful calibrations when my blood sugar was not moving quickly, the readings between my regular glucose monitor and Minimed's continuous Glucose Monitoring System have had differences of of over 100mg/dl and even a difference of around 200mg/dl.

There have been too many times that it did not warn of extremely low blood sugars. Medtronic Minimed also has very poor customer service at times. It's been good at times and awful at other times.

The first sensor system I had had a defective transmitter. The sensors were always on backorder, too. I tried to get a refund because it was unreliable and it was ridiculous to pay the high price for this system and then not be able to use it because of the sensor shortage. They refused to give me a refund and would only replace the transmitter. I told them that even if I got a good transmitter, it was still a problem that they had sensors on a six week backorder. I finally agreed to try a new transmitter. At first it seemed like it was working ok, but soon it was about as bad as the first one I had. Sometimes it was accurate and other times it was grossly inaccurate.

Since the first transmitter was defective, I felt Minimed should replace the sensors I had wasted with the first defective transmitter. They replaced 10 and refused to replace the rest. Another really bad thing is that they told people the sensors lasted for 72 hours. That seemed to be true. At up to 72 hours after insertion, an alarm always comes up and says the sensor has ended. What Minimed didn't tell people (and they still don't tell everyone) is that you can get 3 to 4 more days out of a sensor. They only started telling people after the backorder of sensors became a big problem. Again, not everyone will tell you about that.

I have a teen with type 1 diabetes also and would like to hear about insulin pumps that people are happy with because I will not do business with Minimed after our pump warranties expire and we are ready to get new ones. That will be three years for me and a little more than three more for my son. I'm also very interested in finding an accurate and reliable continuous glucose monitoring system.

[Carlos d'Glycosomine]

I feel for you. My problems with MM were more in the courtesy and candor areas (they did not volunteer information about defects/problems) and could be exceedingly rude. Cozmore cool, reliable and does not have the MM power problems. Animas is good as well but the software is kind of rough.

There are only two approved CGMS system. Abbott has promised theirs by the end of first quarter '08.

[Rains]

I have an Animas 2020 pump that I have had for almost a year now. I am very happy with the pump and with the Animas customer service. Prior to this pump, I had the old Animas IR1000 pump for about 4 years. I have been pleased with the Animas customer service. No complaints thus far.

[amy_diabetic]

I have been on a pump for 12 years now and started on the continuous glucose sensor about 7 months ago. I am finally getting better at calibrating but they do understate how difficult it can be. I have stuck with it only because it has made me realize how erratic my blood sugars can be. However, I had two of my worst ever hypogylcemic episodes ever since being on the sensor and it never even indicated that I was low.

However, my biggest frustration is that none of MiniMed's technologies work if you are on a Mac platform. I do not understand why their web features do not work even with FireFox (which can be used on a windows machine or mac). It is difficult enough that you can only update the data via a windows platform but even more frustrating that you can't even view the data either on the Mac.

[Jonesee]

Mini Med is an adventure to be sure. I've had reactions at the insertion site and had the sensors backordered on me as well. All of this is an evolving science so I give the manufacturer kudos for making a way forward for this area of medicine. My local Medtronic rep. has been very helpful, the Medtronic phone folks can run hot and cold. I guess some of the patients with implanted pumps and sensors are having the same issues particularly in the area of sensing food intake and dosing properly. The CGMS is also helpful when using Symlin to make sure I don't drop after eating and dosing and then keeping tabs on the rise in blood sugars after an hour or so.

Jonesee

[74tgould]

Hi,
I posted on the other thread concerning CGM's. I have been on the DexCom-7 since 9/10 & while it is not perfect I have been happy. It has given me and my Doc great insight into my ups and downs. We are still fine tuning my pump. The high and low alarms have been right on. DexCom's customer service has been good up to now & I have had 3 sensors go bad. The last sensor quit over the Thanksgiving holiday so I e-mailed the info but have not heard. I will call them Monday
My DexCom customer rep has been really, really great. I first started on the CGM with a loaner just to try it out. I installed it at 8:30PM 9/10 & left for a 3 week road trip. On the trip I left my charger in the hotel & she rushed one to my Sisters in Mich. I had 2 sensors for the trip & had to call her several times with different issues. The learning curve for a CGM is steep even when you want to learn the system. The manuals don't tell you much on purpose. Remember why we have to many lawyers. "The book said I could do this or that and look what happened. I'm going to sue." She also explained how to get more than 7 days out of the sensor. I got 15 days out of one. When I returned & got my system the insurance stalled on coverage & was also stalling on paying for the sensors. She offered to send me some until they did & she called my insurance provider & was very instrumental in speeding up the coverage process.
I live in an area where Medtronic support is almost nill but the Animas support is great. When my Nephew lived in FL. he had to attend a 40 hour class put-on by Medtronic before his Endo would allow him to get the system. He was well schooled before installing the pump. Bottom line is that as far as the pumps are concerned they all do just about the same thing with different bells and whistles. The Omnipod is another animal. I like the Bolus Wizard from Medtronic. I also like vibration alarms instead of noise. The real issue is can you get support & training when you need it. I have had three pumps and I will probably switch to Animas in 2 years & I believe DexCom will have their CGM intergrated with their pump by then.

[Jonesee]

Good to know that. I've been less than pleased with the Paradigm system so far. I heard on NPR the other day that medical equipment manufacturers pay physicians to use and promote their products. Some specialists like say a cardio get money from stint manufacturers. In one state it is required for the physicians to disclose this information listed on a website. There is Federal legislation in the works to make this a requirement of all physicians. I think it would be a good idea to know this as a consumer as it helps me in dealing with my healthcare providers.

Jonesee

[eudedi]

Hi I just started with MedTronic in Oct/08 . I was wondering why you would even use the sensors with the 20% diference in blood sugars when doing the finger prick is more accurate ? And lets not forget they are whey too expensive. I don't think i'll continue to use them after the free ones are gone !! Take care eudedi

[Don C.]

I agree that the Medtronic Minimed CGMS system is not at all accurate. The thing was way off. I used only half of the original shipment of 10 sensors and quit. Then months later I tried one again and I had the same bad experience with the product. It still was of no use to me as the numbers were way off when my blood glucose was stable. That transmitter battery only lasts a year so I suppose by now that is junk too. It was an expensive experiment for me to try it. They rolled the product out very poorly because I got the CGMS portion of it 3 months after I got my Minimed 722 pump. They neglected to tell me the sensors were back-ordered. Maybe now they can keep up with sensor manufacturing because people that first tried their CGMS found out it was junk and are not going to buy a new transmitter to experiment further. When I get some expendable cash I will try the Abbott Navigator which is said to be way way better.

[books]

I no longer use the MM sensors. When I was using the sensors, I was blessed to see differences of over 100 at least 2-3 times a week. I had a blood sugar reading on the pump that told me I was 167, and when I started talking gibberish my wife decided to finger prick me. 48! The pump was still reading in the 160's and I was incoherent from low blood sugar!

When I called the MM customer service, I was actually told by a rep, "Maybe you need to learn how to manage your diabetes before using a pump." When I asked to talk to a supervisor, I was told no. This is the worst I have been treated by a rep, but it is not unique to be treated like I don't know anything abotu diabetes and the fault is mine. Translation for me = not happy with the product, very unhappy with the customer service, and think the paradigm system has more problems than it is worth.