First Impressions: The New Omnipod UST400

I started today on the newest Omnipod Insulin Management System, the UST400. (For an update on how I'm doing on the new system after one month, click here.)

For those following my ongoing pump parade, I had left Omnipod last year after over 3 years on their UST200 PDM and original pods because I was frustrated with kinked cannulas and occlusions. From there, I jumped back and forth between my out of warranty backup pump (the Cozmo 1800) and my brand new shiny Tandem tslim (that hasn't worked out for me).

And through a strange set of circumstances, I found myself back at Insulet's door just weeks after their new, smaller Omnipod system had been released. Right as my original Omnipod system warranty expired. Right time, right place, and hopefully an improved user experience.

These are my first impressions.

The new pods are what they promised - lower profile, lighter weight, thinner, shorter, and in every way smaller.

It feels like less weight on my skin. I put the first one on my belly, even though I have always had issues keeping belly pods adhered.

It felt like the gauge might be thinner. (I'll look that up and get back to you.) Pay no attention to the spots on my belly from the insets I wore in the days prior. Also, thank me for cropping out my vitiligo/c-section/linea negra circus that is the area near my belly button. It ain't pretty, but it is what it is.

The adhesive is an improvement in the sense that the pod itself is significantly better welded to the hypafix tape, and being lighterweight, probably won't tear away as easily.

I'm not going to pull any punches with you, dear readers. This pod fell off my belly in the shower not six hours after I put it on (and I used IV prep!). The good news though is that, while the adhesive didn't stick to my skin the way I'd hoped, it was really hard to get the adhesive off of the pod. With the old pods, you could cock an eyebrow at it funny and the darn thing would peel away from its tape. But I got the tape off so that I could show you its delicious underbelly.

They've tinted the cannula blue for better visibility, though to be honest, at the angle I always find myself wearing a pod, I don't believe this is going to help. But if you wanted to have a friend or family member check it, it'd be more visible to them, I suppose.

They've also added a pink horseshoe shaped fixture in the top of the pod to indicate that the cannula deployed properly. Nice, but I never remember having a pod in three years whose cannula did not deploy. I'm not sure if this was a common complaint or if the FDA required it or what.

Here's another shot of the new pod with two Verio IQs for reference.

Don't get your hopes up about any kind of strip change though. The new system, despite rumored partnerships between Insulet and One Touch, still takes the same old Freestyle strips (pictured below).

But look how tiny the little 10-pack boxes are!

Nearly everything about the new system is smaller. Look at this itty bitty fill needle? SOOOO much shorter than the fill needles of yesteryear.

There's one thing that's not smaller though. The PDM. It is exactly the same size. Shape. Feel. The buttons are a bit softer and more pressable, thankfully, but it will still fit your snappy color skins from the UST200. It's black, supposedly to resemble smartphones, but it's the same PDM you know and love with a few upgrades to the brain.

First and most obvious is the ID screen. I know of people with multiple podders in their family who will see this screen as a breath of fresh air when tiptoeing in to check nighttime blood sugars. For the rest of us, this is a potential annoyance. Before proceeding to any other screen, you must hit the soft key for Confirm. This includes when you insert a strip to test your blood glucose. So you insert a strip, confirm your name, then have to (still, really?) confirm the code of the for-all-intents-and-purposes-non-coding Freestyle strips, and then you are prompted for your blood drop. (But you have options for what color the screen is!) Eh, it's not that bad, really.

But there are more. Everything you do now, even entering a carb count for your bolus, requires you to Confirm. Confirm. Confirm. I can tell you now that I'm going to get tired of the confirmation screens the same way I did on the t:slim. This is probably all due to safety checks endorsed for all the right reasons. But come on, have you ever tried to turn off a PlayStation3? No really. No, are you sure? No, are you sure you want to power it off. Okay, one last time...

The best features of the new system center around Insulin on Board (IOB). In past iterations of the Omnipod, mealtime insulin was not considered in the IOB - only correction insulin. It now considers food insulin as onboard insulin, like many of its competitors' pumps (with the exception of Medtronic). That change will take some getting used to for people for whom the pod has been their only system.

Secondly, IOB is now displayed prominently on the home screen at all times. YES. Also, YES.

My biggest beef is with the things that they didn't change about the system. I had hoped that the system would retain your extended bolus information in the event of a pod change the way I loved that the Cozmo did. If you had to change your set mid-extended bolus on the Cozmo, after you got everything set up, it would remind you that you had been running an extended bolus, tell you how much was left, and ask if you wanted to continue it. When my pod fell off in the shower with the kids tonight, I was in the middle of an extended bolus for some honey-seared Chinese food. Holy wontons. The pod change obliterated that information and I instead did a retest and rebolus and all worked out (so far).

They also didn't add extra tape near the nose of the pod. This is where I frequently found myself losing adherence and actually where it came up during my shower tonight. This does not make me happy.

The new case is as flimsy and cheap as the old one but they did add a velcro strap (left) that accommodates the PDM while in the silicone skin as well as a little black pillow (right) that's supposed to protect the screen. The mesh pocket on the back (not pictured) is as flimsy as ever. And we're supposed to hold a spare pod there? No, thank you. That pocket will be ripped before you can say "Two Toddlers."

Get yourself a Myabetic or a Sugar Bag. You'll thank me later.

All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic. I put Pod 2 on my upper arm. As expected, I can't feel it and it does weigh less than the old ones. I'll see what all I knock it into tomorrow and keep you all posted.

I'm back, Omnipod. Don't disappoint me. Mama needs a pump she can count on.