A new pump is available in Australia, right now. The Ypsomed (pronounced ipsomed) has been TGA approved and will be reimbursed by your health fund and the consumables are on the NDSS. I was invited to attend a soft launch of the product and provided with a loan pump to ‘test-drive’. Ypsomed covered my travel and accommodation expenses to attend this event and lent me a pump to test drive. I have not been paid or expected to write about or comment on this or any other product.
The first thing I noticed about the Ypsomed is its size. It’s small and lightweight. I REALLY like that it is much smaller and much less bulky than my current pump (which is only a few months old and yet is the biggest pump I have ever owned).
It has a large, touch screen. Despite being small, almost the entire front of the pump is the screen, so it’s easy to read and use.
The pump is made in Switzerland (which has a reputation for quality in manufacturing) but 24/7 support is local rather than using an international call centre.
I was surprised to learn that Ypsomed has a long history of involvement in diabetes devices. They were, in fact, behind the Disetronic pumps available in the 80s through to the early 2000s. The current pump has been available in Europe since 2016.
The pump has a glass cartridge, which appeals to me as I feel the insulin may be less likely to degrade in glass and hope that at least there will be a tiny bit less plastic diabetes waste around as a result. Here’s hoping that Novo start bringing the pre-filled cartridges into Australia (they are currently available in Europe).
It is water proof (although I haven’t tested this…yet) and takes a AAA alkaline battery (the pump won’t accept lithium batteries).
A downside at the moment is that the pump doesn’t ‘talk’ to any of the CGMs, so blood sugar readings would need to be entered into the MYLife app manually in order to calculate correction doses. Ypsomed staff assured us that they are in talks with most of the CGM and Flash manufacturers
I understand that the Ypsomed blood glucose meter talks directly to the app for bolus calcs etc.
I haven’t actually attached the Ypsomed pump yet-I plan to in the next day or two (no sense wasting the full insulin reservoir in my current pump. I shall update this review about usability and button pushes and also the use of the app once I’ve worn it for a while.
For a couple of other early reviews check out:
I am excited about a pump that is smaller AND the fact that more players are entering the insulin pump market. I was worried with the withdrawal of J&J that we might end up with only one pump in Australia. I’m sure that every pump has its own pros and cons but if you are looking for a pump or an upgrade make sure you check out all available options. Some educators or endos tend to push the pump that they’re most familiar with, I’m all for choice-so make sure you see a sample of ALL the pumps in the Aussie market before you commit.
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