Oklahoma Tornado

Paul Hellstern - Oklahoma APLast night this photo of two teachers leading children to safety brought tears to my eyes and sent me racing to my computer to make a donation to the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Today, I've preempted my blog piece about delivering insulin in difficult carb counting situations to pass on information on how you can send relief to the people whose lives where destroyed in yesterday's tornado. I encourage you to make a donation of any size if you are able and please make your friends, both online and IRL, aware of how easy it is to send help. 

American Red Cross

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

Salvation Army

Text STORM to 80888 to contribute $10 to the Salvation Army's relief efforts or make a donation by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY. If you're sending a check make sure you put the words "Oklahoma Tornado Relief" on the check, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 12600, Oklahoma City, OK., 73157. Online donations are accepted here.

Insulet Reports 1Q 2013 Results: New Pod Statement

"We are pleased with the initial launch of the new, smaller and lighter OmniPod in the U.S.," said Duane DeSisto, President and Chief Executive Officer of Insulet.  "Our customers and healthcare professionals have been sharing their positive feedback about the reduced size, ease of use and change to the insulin on board calculation.  Demand for the new OmniPod has been tremendous with referrals and initial shipments up by more than 40% over the last two months as compared to the prior year.  In the coming weeks, we expect to begin converting the existing customer base to the new OmniPod and continue to expect the transition to be completed by the end of the third quarter."

The rest of the report is here.

Update on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 10:55AM by Scott Benner

The following is from the May 6, 2013 Insulet Earnings Call. The quote was brought to my attention by the TuDiabetes User, Erik. I then listened to the call to verify the quote as accurate. It can be found 05:47 into the call.

"With this significant uptick in demand, we did make the decision to delay the transition of existing customers for approximately 90 days in order to build additional OmniPod supply. While the manufacturing process continues to improve, we had an unexpected component issue that resulted in lower than planned production in the latter part of Q1. While this component issue was quickly identified, and remedied in conjunction with both Flextronics and the supplier, we determined it most prudent to build inventory and insure that both manufacturing lines were operating efficiently before we commence the transition of over 45 thousand customers to the new OmniPod. At this point, we expect that conversion will start in the next few weeks, and remain confident that nearly all customer will be transitioned by the end of the third quarter."

Health Canada Approves DexCom G4

DexCom announced yesterday at their May 1, 2013 Earnings Conference Call that...

"On the international front, we are pleased to report that we have received approval from Health Canada to begin marketing the G4 system in Canada. Our initial approval is for adults only. However, we expect to file supplements seeking pediatric approval later this quarter. Our distributor in Canada expects to commence a limited launch at the beginning of Q3 with the full launch commencing before the end of Q3"

Congratulations to my Canadian friends who have been patiently waiting to use DexCom's G4 system!

From Stay-At-Home Dad to Published Author and all the Laundry in between

From the Trenton Times. Photo by Christina Izzo 

From the Trenton Times: 

Scott Benner said he had his first introduction to writing books when he was a child in school.

“We used to write them and bind them and then they would go on a library cart and go from class to class,” he said. “That’s the part I really liked — that the book was somewhere else and someone else was reading it.”

Benner, who grew up in Bucks County, continued writing through his teens and early 20s, trying his hand at writing movie scripts and fiction, but he said he found that he was writing stories that were already written.

“I felt that I didn’t have anything to say,” he said. “I felt that if I kept saying stuff that somebody else had already said, either it isn’t valuable or I’m not at a point yet where I should be doing this.”

But after being a stay-at-home dad for 12 years, Benner said he found something to say.

You can read the entire article in today's edition or online here.

If you are in the Central NJ area, please come out tonight at 6:30 pm for my first book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Hamilton, NJ.

Oh Canada, I have new OmniPod info

Over the weekend I received more then a few queries from fellow OmniPodders that live in Canada. All were wondering when they can expect the smaller OmniPod to arrive north of the border. So I tied a tiny electronic note to a digital sparrow and released him into the Internet. This encouraging bit of news is what came back...

"With U.S. FDA approval now in hand, we can move forward with our regulatory filings in Canada. We hope that we would begin selling the new OmniPod in Canada later in 2013." - Brian Roberts, CFO, Insulet

There you have it Canada, I hope that this was the kind of news that you were all hoping for. It's not concrete but Insulet is willing to tie themselves to a date, however vague, and I think that is worth be optimistic about. I'll let you know more when I do.

Oh, you know what, while you're here. I've been wondering this my entire adult life... What's a Canuck? Seriously, is it a bird, plant, slang or none of the above? I need to know, please. Thanks!