With the launch of CamAPS FX, I’ve been lucky enough to get hold of it to try out and see how it works.
Firstly, thanks to John Hughes at Advanced Therapeutics for lending me a trial DanaRS pump to use with the system and secondly, thanks to Roman Horvorka for giving me the opportunity to try it out.
To use it you require a DanaRS pump, a Dexcom G6 CGM and an Android phone.
I’ve put the app on my Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G, so we’ll have to see how that particular piece of hardware works with it.
As we know from the press release, normally to the consumer it would be £70 per month, however I’ve been given the opportunity to try it out for free and see how it gets on versus the DIYAPS systems that I am more familiar with.
Over the next few weeks there will be videos and comparisons of performance and we’ll see how it compares to those DIY systems.
Firstly, let’s look at setting it up and getting going.
Set Up
Set-up is a reasonably simple process, where the team had been given the serial number of my pump so that I can use the app. If they don’t have an approved serial number, it doesn’t work.
Setup is incredibly simple and doesn’t require any significant diabetes engagement. You pair the pump with the phone via the app (an incredibly easy process thanks to the DanaRS, as easy as AndroidAPS), then off you go.
Once the pump is paired, three pieces of information are required:
- You are asked to enter your weight (in kilograms);
- Your average TDD over the last five days;
- Finally I had to enter the serial number of my Dexcom G6 transmitter – I assume this is one time only as it was for the setup.
And that’s it. No setting up basal rates, no testing settings, no set-up of carb ratio or insulin sensitivity factor. It’s boom and off you go.
With a half hour wait for the transmitter to pair, that was it. There’s a bit of a brief fly through next, looking at the various options in the system, and we’ll come back to glucose targets and how it gets on in the next post…
Whilst you’re setting up, you might also want to add your Diasend details in the Share option to give you some decent reporting on your insulin usage, glucose levels, etc…
I’ve been using the CamAPSFX system on a clinical trial since October. This clinical trial is designed for >60 yo T1Ds.
I immediately found it simple and friendly to use. The clinical team at Addenbrookes are outstanding and I always greatly appreciate their involvement. My in-target results are well above what I would have achieved by myself resulting in an excellent Hba1c at the end of the looping phase of the trial.
I would recommend this system to most T1Ds. I do however like to exercise by walking long distance trails and going on & leading club group road bike rides. While exercising I have to turn off looping to set a temporary basal rate. In my opinion CamAPSFX with a option to adjust the basal rate would be a game changer for the growing Looping community.
In the short time that I’ve used it, I noted that for any form of exercise, I need to set “Ease Off” well ahead of the exercise period. But this is no different to setting “Exercise mode” in DIY systems. Have you been doing that, given that the way the CamAPS team describe Ease-Off is “like a 30% reduced TBR”
Exercise/activity management is highly individual. It is difficult to come with “generic rules”. In our closed loop studies with CamAPS FX, we train users to initiate “Ease off” before the start of exercise/activity, say 60 to 90 min (or even earlier if possible). As a “no no”, users should not preload with glucose, as this results in increased glucose levels causing additional insulin delivered through closed loop action and higher “insulin on board” when exercise starts. This is the main reason where turning off closed loop prior to exercise would be beneficial.
“Ease off” has numerous effects on the control algorithm including: (i) increased glucose target, (ii) increased insulin sensitivity, and (iii) suspended insulin delivery below a higher glucose threshold. All in all, this reduces insulin substantially yet delivers insulin when glucose is elevated as may occur with some exercise/activity. Planning “Ease off” is of benefit for younger children (once they are back at school) to manage insulin delivery prior/during PE without them interacting with the system.
Not that we do not listen – we are aware of the very few who turn off closed loop during exercise.
Dear Tim, thanks a lot for sharing a great experience with us! I am really contemplating trying CamAPS out of my pocket as I have all the hardware material and experience with AAPS.
I have two questions for you:
-In the initial setup, assuming you come from AAPS with patched Dexcom app as would be my case, would you need to unpair the pump from your AAPS and restart a new sensor / transmitter? or how would the transition from one system to the other work in your experience?
-I miss details about the equivalents of “disconnect pump” and “suspend loop” in CamAPS, I hope this is possible for say swimming or taking a shower etc.?
Thanks again for a great post.
Thanks Jorge. In answer to your questions:
1. You’ll need to disconnect the pump for AAPS and connect it to CAMAPS. CAMAPS asks for the serial number of the pump when you set it up. As for Dexcom, you’d just delete the Dexcom app, add your dexcom transmitter details into CAMAPS and hit “Start Sensor” with the sensor code. You don’t need to replace the sensor when you change over. I didn’t.
2. Turning the loop on and off is very simple. There’s a button that you can see on one of the screenshots above that turns “Auto Mode” on and off which is always on the main screen. There’s no “Disconnect Pump” setting, but I never needed that. To suspend the pump, you’ll have to do it on the DanaRS rather than in app, but that’s very straightforward process.