What's Inside an Omnipod?

[Gdad]

My eight year old daughter 'the future engineer' has Type-1 Diabetes and just started using the Omnipod. (www.myomnipod.com) Billed as "The world’s first tubing-free system is discreet and durable- wireless and watertight" the system has two main components- the Insulin reservoir / pump seen above which sticks to the skin- and a wireless PDA style controller. This particular part is disposable (recyclable now- which is good.) and only designed to be used for 72 hours before it is replaced. The following pictures are what we found when my daughter wanted to 'take it apart' and see how it works. Proud Dad moment #1- nobody has to suggest opening up a gadget and seeing what makes it tick to me twice. It was dissected in the kitchen moments later. This unit was one of our training devices and only pumped Saline for three days- she is on it for real as of this morning.

The overall view shows the Insulin reservoir (bottom right) along with the motor that controls the pump. When the gear wheel to the left of the reservoir is rotated by hand the drive screw plunges the stopper in and Saline is forced through the cannula tube. In the center you can also see a heavy spring that I assume is the force that deploys the firing mechanism that sets the cannula under the skin. At the top is the battery compartment.

This thing has some serious battery power for a little electronic device that is only designed to function for three days.

At the bottom of this shot you can see the the cannula which they claim inserts in just 1/200ths of a second. They also claim it is "virtually pain-free" although she may disagree with that claim slightly.

Another view- at the bottom of this shot you can see the cannula and also the needle that does the insertion.

Thought it was pretty cool technology- just sharing.

 

[SueM in MN]

That's very cool (and I am also the type who would dissect the thing to see what was inside it). Thanks for sharing.
It is pretty amazing to see what is being come up with to make things easier fir people with disabilities. Technology really does make life easier. Luckily, there are people who have the ability to think outside the box.

As cool as this is, I'm going to move it to the disABILITIES Community Board, where more general disability related things are discussed. The 'regular' disABILITIES Board where it was originally posted is more for WDW related subjects.

 

[MapleGirl]

Thanks for posting this. Congratulations to your DD on her omnipod! DH has one and it is pretty cool. The only problem we have is that it sometimes comes off his skin.... the sticky part stays on, but the pods rips off the sticky part. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to prevent this. We tried an ace bandage wrapped around his upper arm (I wrapped it too tight and his arm turned purple... oops! He also had a problem with it getting in the way of his arm moving around) Maybe I should sew a sleeve... Hmmmm.. Sorry, just thinking aloud!

Anyway, thanks for posting and good luck with the Pod. It is super not to have to take injections anymore!!!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Thanks for sharing that. We're looking at an Omnipod for my son, and I was curious as to what was in it.

For all you omnipod users (or pump users in general) - how do you like it? Does it stick well? Do you notice it particularly? Will it work for an active toddler (OK, so what toddler isn't )

Any advice? We met with both the Omnipod and medtronic reps, but haven't really made a decision which way to go.

Jen

 

[Selket]

Very cool pics. I hope you will post that (or did post it) over at the Children With Diabetes parents board. I don't normally read the omnipod posts but that was interesting to see its intestines.

 

[cliffandcrystal]

My 5 and half year old started on the pod this past Monday. The first one came off Monday night. So we applied another one, but had to change Tuesday morning due to a pod failure. This one lasted until Wednesday night. We wrapped with coban, snug but not too tight, and this seemed to help. The lastest one (today's Friday) has been on since Wednesday. I met with an omnipod nurse who suggested purchasing liquid bandaid & applying to places we noticed the gauge was coming up. That has helped immensely, along with keeping his arm wrapped in coban. However, we take the coban off at bath time & leave it off overnight. I also purchased some hypafix, which is the adhesive gauze the omnipod is attached to, and cut strips & placed two strips in the shape of an x over the pod. This has helped immensely also. Another thing the nurse told me was to scrub the arm with alcohol wipe, let dry, and then wipe site with alcohol a second time before applying pod. Good luck!

Thanks for posting this. Congratulations to your DD on her omnipod! DH has one and it is pretty cool. The only problem we have is that it sometimes comes off his skin.... the sticky part stays on, but the pods rips off the sticky part. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to prevent this. We tried an ace bandage wrapped around his upper arm (I wrapped it too tight and his arm turned purple... oops! He also had a problem with it getting in the way of his arm moving around) Maybe I should sew a sleeve... Hmmmm.. Sorry, just thinking aloud!

Anyway, thanks for posting and good luck with the Pod. It is super not to have to take injections anymore!!!

 

[Gdad]

After a little over a year we are having very good luck with the pod- she loves it. Good advice on the alcohol wipes- I usually use several each time. We have also found that certain soaps and bath products that have a lot of moisturizer in them make the pods not stick as well no matter how good you swab the area. A full day at the water park is about the only thing that we ever have problems with them sticking completely on their own.

Oh- and Uni-Solve adhesive remover wipes are the best for getting the old pods off. When they trained us they said to use fingernail polish remover which did next to nothing. Put on the adhesive remover- wait five minutes- and the pods pull of without her even feeling it. They are expensive at the store (like $20 for a box of 50) but I got 100 of them on Ebay for just $5. Just be careful to take the old pod off last so you don't get the adhesive remover from your fingers on the new pod.

 

[Gdad]

Since this thread got bumped I'll share this also. Very excited that Continuum wants to use this image of my daughter for part of their new marketing campaign. They called me and sent a nice message a couple weeks ago. This is the company that invented the Omnipod and is now working on the next next-generation insulin pump.

"At Continuum, a design consultancy, we focus on how a product or idea/strategy truly effects people. Our design approach is 'human centered'; when we came across the image you took – it could not be expressed better than that."

http://www.dcontinuum.com/content/portfolio/1/272/