Setting Patients Up for Success Ahead of Training
When a patient is preparing to start insulin pump therapy, they are often encouraged by their local Medtronic clinical representative to attend a “Prepare for Therapy” session. Attending this session helps to ensure they are set-up for success and may greatly improve their overall experience during the training process. Below we’ve listed some of the key steps that patients should aim to complete prior to training. As a best practice, you may want to communicate this to your patients (and perhaps even assist them as you deem appropriate):
- Open the boxes sent by Medtronic. Be sure all the supplies were received.
- Place the AA battery (included) into the pump and complete the Start-up Wizard (date, time, language). This is a simple step that most patients feel comfortable completing on their own. This may also help increase their comfort level with the pump by practicing button-pushing. Please note: This will not interfere with the pump programming during training.
- Charge the transmitter:
- Place the Guardian™ Link 3 Transmitter on the charger. When the transmitter is charging, a green light will flash on the charger. When charging is complete, the green light on the charger will stay on, without flashing, for 15 to 20 seconds and then turn off. The transmitter can take up to 2 hours to charge. Please note: Do not store the transmitter on the charger for an extended period of time.
- Link the devices:
- Once the transmitter is charged, link the transmitter to the pump. Instructions can be found in the Getting Started with MiniMed™ 770G Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) guide.
- Link the corresponding linking glucose meter to the pump. Instructions can be found in the Getting Started with MiniMed™ 770G Insulin Pump guide. To access the corresponding guides for MiniMed™ 630G and MiniMed 670G systems click here.
- Download and set up the apps:
- For patients using the MiniMed™ 770G system, downloading the MiniMed™ Mobile app and creating a CareLink™ Personal account ahead of training is crucial. This is where you, as the educator, will save the most time. By doing this ahead of time, they can troubleshoot or reset their password as needed. Encourage your patients to write down their username and bring it with them to training (this will enable you to send an invitation to link their personal account to your CareLink™ Professional account). Instructions on how to set up the MiniMed™ Mobile App can be found here.
- If the patient is amenable, encourage them to set up a care partner via the CareLink™ Connect app (on their care partner’s phone) as well. The care partner will need to follow similar steps on the CareLink™ Connect App to complete this process. Instructions on how to set up the CareLink™ Connect app can be found here.
Below you’ll also finds two helpful links worth sharing with patients as part of this pre-training process.
Changing the insulin pump battery
Caring for the sensor and transmitter
Did you know? Diabetes.shop is a great resource to share with your patients! It’s a one-stop-shop for ongoing needs such as supply reorders and sensor/belt clip replacement requests. Diabetes.shop even provides patients with the ability to check their upgrade eligibility status. To register, patients can visit www.diabetes.shop and click “Create an Account.”
As always, we are here to help. Consider partnering with your local representatives to learn about what Medtronic has to offer to help support your product training and education needs.