What it does
Animas Vibe is a combination insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that uses Dexcom's Platinum sensing CGM to deliver doses of insulin according to blood sugar levels. It offers insulin delivery in increments of 0.025 units per hour, and is approved for use by patients with type 1 diabetes.
How it works
Basically, the Animas Vibe talks directly to the Dexcom G4 Platinum transmitter, bringing CGM data right onto the pump's screen, and eliminating the need for a separate Dexcom CGM receiver (although one can be used as well). This provides patients with real-time access to their CGM data, and allows them to make better decisions about their insulin delivery based on trends over time.
How it's different from a traditional Dexcom G4 system
The main difference between the Vibe and a standard Dexcom G4 receiver is that the trend graph screens on the Vibe are harder to read, and lower in resolution, than on the receiver. Despite this, the Vibe's trend graphs are still easy to understand and provide plenty of information about current glucose levels.
What's good about the Vibe
The Vibe has a few features that are nice to have, but not perfect:
For example, the bolus calculator screen on the Vibe defaults to the calculated insulin amount with just one button push - a great improvement! The Vibe also has a “Jump to Value” feature, which eliminates the need to scroll from 0.0 every time you want to change an insulin dose - this is especially useful when changing your dose from low to high.
