What is it like to use Smart MDI? 

Imagine taking the guesswork out of your insulin doses? The Smart MDI system aims to do just that… But does it work? We asked three people with diabetes to give us their honest feedback.

What is the Smart MDI system?

Medtronic’s Smart MDI system incorporates three elements: 

1. The InPen, a smart pen that tracks your insulin doses
2. The Simplera sensor, Medtronic’s latest offering in continuous glucose monitoring
3. The InPen app that tracks and calculates, assisting you with managing your diabetes. 

We had two main questions about the Smart MDI system: How does it make life with diabetes easier, and what are the most useful features? 

We also spoke to endocrinologist Dr Wimpie de Lange to get his take on Medtronic’s latest treatment solution. Read on to find out what it’s like to use the Medtronic Smart MDI system.

How does it make life with diabetes easier? 

Informed and supported

Understanding what your blood sugar is doing is key to calculating insulin doses. One of the main benefits of the Smart MDI system, according to Duan Gerber, is that you know exactly where your blood sugar levels are. “It makes all the difference in the world knowing when my blood sugar levels are going up or down,” he says, “especially while I’m working – I tend to forget to eat sometimes and then the system immediately warns me so that I’m able to take the appropriate action in time.”

No guessing or forgetting

The Smart MDI system uses individualised settings to calculate your injection doses, taking into account the food you’ve eaten and previous injections. This has made it easy for Duan to calculate his correction doses (you can set and programme your insulin to carb ratio with the InPen App). When sugar levels are rising, he gets an alarm from the Simplera sensor app and the InPen app gives him a suggested correction dose to prevent hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).

Brennan Babb finds this one of the most useful features of the Smart MDI system. 

“I have been fascinated by how technology has evolved to cater for the needs of people with Type 1 diabetes. With the Smart MDI system, the guesswork and calculations are a thing of the past.” 

Brennan Babb, living with Type 1 diabetes

Lighter mental load 

For Mieke Steenekamp, who balances diabetes along with being a mom, a wife and a dietician, the biggest shift was in how she felt about her diabetes. “I noticed an improvement in my daily diabetes management soon after I started using the Smart MDI system,” she says. “The InPen isn’t just a smart insulin pen – it’s like having a mini diabetes assistant in your pocket.”

“The Smart MDI system doesn’t just help me give insulin – it helps me think less about diabetes. Fewer calculations, fewer errors, more confidence.”

Mieke Steenekamp, living with Type 1 diabetes

Duan agrees, sharing that using the Smart MDI system has made his life, as an active individual who loves sports, much easier. “I now have the peace of mind that the Smart MDI system will warn me in time to take the appropriate action,” he says.

What are the most useful features of the Smart MDI system?

Easy set up

During your initial set up, you can adjust your body’s sensitivity to insulin (your insulin to carb ratio) in order to take away the math and guesswork from MDI (Multiple Daily Injections). 

Brennan says that following the set up and connecting it to a mobile device was pretty easy, with simple instructional videos. The smart pen’s battery lasts about a year, and uses low energy Bluetooth. The InPen app settings tell you how long you have been using it. 

Integrating with Simplera

Endocrinologist Dr Wimpie de Lange weighs in on the integration of the InPen with the Simplera sensor: 

“The Smart MDI system allows real-time monitoring of blood glucose, coupled with the synchronisation of data from the sensor with food intake and insulin dosing. This is very useful information for your doctor to have access to.”

Dr Wimpie de Lange, endocrinologist

Mieke’s experience demonstrates that. “When paired with the Simplera sensor, the InPen app overlays glucose data and insulin doses on one screen,” she explains. “It’s so much easier to spot patterns and understand how your body responds to food and insulin when you can see it all together.”

Brennan has further integrated his experience: the Simplera app also connects to Apple Watches, allowing a section of the active screen on the watch to show current blood glucose values at a glance. This provides alerts for any critical glucose events with a little beep and vibration. The notification system and alerts have helped Brennan avoid any critical low (hypoglycemic) events.

Personalised experience

For Duan, one of the most useful features is the personalisation: setting up parameters that allow him to choose what blood sugar levels result in an alarm, helping him to avoid blood sugar spikes. These alarms can be silenced when needed, for example in a work meeting or any other situation where you don’t want your phone to alarm.

“Thanks to these warnings, I was able to get my HbA1c levels from just over 8.6% to a very controlled 5.6%, which is absolutely fantastic.”

Duan Gerber, living with Type 1 diabetes

Active insulin tracking

“Insulin on board” is a phrase used to talk about the active insulin that remains after your previous dose. The app tracks how much insulin is still active in your system — so you’re less likely to stack doses, providing peace of mind, especially when snacking or correcting high blood sugar with injections that are close together. 

Dose calculations

“One of the hardest things for many patients and carers is calculating insulin doses,” explains Dr Wimpie de Lange. “The Smart MDI calculation of insulin bolus according to glucose levels and carbohydrate intake takes stress off the patient and the carer.” The app will calculate your dosages based on the amount of carbs you plan to eat, and your existing blood sugar reading, as well as your current insulin on board.

“One of the biggest mental burdens of diabetes is doing carb maths every single time you eat. The Smart MDI system takes care of that.” 

Mieke Steenekamp, living with Type 1 diabetes

Mieke explains that all she has to do is enter the amount of carbs she’s eating, and it works with her current blood glucose level to calculate how much insulin she needs based on her settings. “No more guessing, second-guessing, or grabbing a calculator pre-meal!”

Reminders and injection dose logging

“One of my favourite things is that every bolus injection dose is logged in real time, so the familiar feeling of, ‘Did I actually take that injection?’ is gone,” explains Mieke. “This also provides more  accurate data to understand trends, as there’s no risk of me having forgotten to log a dose.”

While the InPen doesn’t work with long acting insulins, it will set reminders to assist you in remembering to take that insulin dose. 

Temperature 

“Another thing I love is that the InPen has a thermometer, which lets you know if it’s been exposed to heat – a very useful feature when you live in a hot climate like South Africa!” says Brennan.

Considering the Smart MDI system?

So what’s the verdict – is the Smart MDI a good idea for people with Type 1 diabetes?

Mieke would recommend it! “Especially for people who are on MDI but want some of the intelligence that an insulin pump offers, it’s a great in-between. If you’re not ready or able to switch to a pump, the Smart MDI system gives you many of the data-driven benefits – without the hardware commitment.”

Brennan agrees, recommending the system to people with diabetes wanting to take advantage of the combination tech built into the pen device and the sensor. “5 star rating for the Simplera and InPen combo. Well done Medtronic.”

Dr de Lange’s insight is that after over 100 years of insulin development and diabetes management technology, Medtronic’s Smart MDI system comes into play as a solution that is “the closest you will get to an insulin pump, without wearing an insulin pump.”

Find out more about Medtronic’s Smart MDI system here.

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