Forget about Y2K – this year’s Leap Year date of Feb. 29, 2012, caused a hiccup in the Animas OneTouch Ping system that the company wants to alert customers to right away.
Apparently the problem only affects users who attempted to make changes to their time and/or date settings on that exact fateful day. Weird. Per Animas:
- On this date, the pump’s software did not recognize changes some patients attempted to make to their time and/or date settings.
- Therefore, we are recommending our patients verify the time and date on their pumps. If a patient noticed that the time and/or date were incorrect, they should correct these settings immediately and test their blood sugars.
The company will be sending out a letter out to all patients shortly, urging them to check the time and date settings on their pumps. You can read a copy of the letter immediately by clicking on the top link here.
The issue is not only assuring accurate BG records, but could potentially also affect basal rates running at the wrong time of day for your body. With obligatory concern for safety, the manufacturers state:
“If you notice that the time and/or date displayed on your pump is not correct, it is important to correct this information immediately, as instructed in the Owner’s Booklet. We also recommend that you verify all other pump settings and test your blood sugar.”
If you’re an Animas Ping user and you’ve got questions, feel free to call them at (855) 230‐7577.
So, did anything else go haywire on Leap Year this time around? We love this Twilight Zone stuff! (OK, maybe it’s just a software bug.) But do tell…
I am not a pumper, but I do some programming. I find it very embarrassing that a company owned by Johnson and Johnson made such a huge mistake. The code to solve this problem is not very complex, all things considered. If I were a pumper, I would be very upset with J&J.
My two cents at least.
I am not a pumper either, but know a lot of programmers. The mistake that J&J made is inexcusable.
Also another rant; why are pumps running on mid 20th century technology?
Just my opinion.
what 20th century technology are you talking about? You can probably thank the FDA for slow modifications to pumps. It takes 5 years to get one approved.. So it is 2005 ish.. For example, your pump can’t talk to your iphone because the FDA would have to “approve” that too.
Good or bad, that is reason. BTW, that is also why they dont have a new one every year but about every 5….
I am a programmer and I can tell you that this bug is an amazing one. The time was fine for everybody except those who were setting their clocks.
Thankfully daylight savings time and Feb 29th were not on the same day.
I am guessing the part of the time change procedure that checks for skipping from one day to another must have failed to recognize Feb29 from the actual time stamp that was used for all the other important stuff. THen the “change” was flagged as invalid and not changed.
Oddly the pump user I know was changing time zones that day and discovered it.
I doubt it really caused any problems that day but could for those moving a large number of time zones, but again only on that day…
I noticed that my son’s Ping changed from AM to PM on that day.
parents of type 1 diebetics need to stick together.. as such.. i laugh with you when i ask.. did it change from AM to PM near 11:59 AM?
(wink.. keep up the great work with your kids!)
I just got the approval and everything for my new Ping. Apparently, they’re not sending any new ones out until they fix the bug. It’s an annoying delay for me, but at least they’re fixing the problem.