User Feedback: Bill

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Susan Moolman

We have started getting feedback from our users who have received their Timesulin caps and I wanted to share some with you. This one comes from Bill in Devon:

I got my Timesulin pen top last week and need to write and tell you just how superb it is. All you have to do is take it out of the box and put it onto your pen. Even I can do that. No buttons or levers, nothing to program, no menus.

Picture the scenario: “Oops have I taken my insulin” (Looks at pen top) “Oh yes 32 minutes ago!”

In short it is Brrrriliant. Only last month I accidentally took my dose twice, this can be very dangerous – and even fatal – so your device will undoubtedly save lives.

Kind regards, Bill

Thank you, Bill! I’m thrilled to hear that we are helping you manage your insulin intake and making life with diabetes a little easier. Ultimately, that’s our goal – we want people to be able to focus on things other than their diabetes and spend less energy on worrying about whether or not they’ve administered their shot.

Have you received your Timesulin caps? What is your experience? Email me at press@timesulin.com and I’ll share it with our readers here.

A little bit longer…

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Susan Moolman

Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is living with Type 1 diabetes and has used his celebrity status to bring awareness to the condition. I recently found the lyrics to his song, ‘A little bit longer’ and wanted to share it with you here as the words may resonate with many of us.

A little bit longer – Nick Jonas
Got the news today
Doctors said I have to stay
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine
When I thought it’d all be done
When I thought it’d all been said
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine.
But you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
And you don’t know what it’s like to feel so low
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow
You don’t even know, know, know.
You don’t even know

All this time goes by
Still no reason why
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine.
Waitin’ on a cure
But none of them are sure
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine
But you don’t know what you go ’til it’s gone
You don’t know what it’s like to feel so low.
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow
You don’t even know, know, know.
You don’t even know, know, know.
You don’t even know, no

And you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.
Don’t know what it’s like to feel so low, yeah!
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow,
You don’t even know! yeah! woah!

So I’ll wait ’til kingdom come.
All the highs and lows are gone.
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine.
I’ll be…fine

Timesulin loves DSN’s

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Susan Moolman

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with a number of Diabetes Specialist Nurses since we launched Timesulin – it seems that they are the ones who most recognise the need for a device that can help their patients lead a less worried, more balanced life. Yesterday I was over at Queen Mary’s Hospital where I had lunch with Wendy McMahon, the DSN there. I got introduced to the diabetes consultant and we had an interesting conversation about the NHS, a holistic approach to diabetes management and, of course, Timesulin!

Here’s Wendy holding her Timesulin demo units. If you are a DSN wanting to offer your patients information about Timesulin, please get in touch with us to schedule some time.

Inside the Timesulin web shop launch!

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Andreas Sjölund

This was an exciting week at Timesulin when, after more than a year of product design and production, we finally opened the doors to our webshop and started bringing Timesulin to those that need it. And the response so far has been overwhelming! People from across the globe have contacted us and I wanted to share a few of the most common questions we are getting:

1. Why don’t you sell Timesulin in my country? The short answer is that our device is CE certified and we can only sell it to countries that honor this European certification. We are working hard to bring it to other countries and will make it available as soon as the device is certified.

2. Do you make a Timesulin Cap for my Novo Pen 3 or 4? Currently, we only support the Flexpen, Kwikpen and Solostar pens and the related pens with the same form factor. You can see exactly which pens we support by visiting our webshop. We plan to support other models soon and you can cast a vote for your pen by filling in the form at the bottom right of the webshop and we will notify you when your pen is supported.

3. I’m having problems ordering and the webshop is asking me to fill in my first name although I already filled it in! Some people, in particular those with an older version of Internet Explorer, are having an issue ordering and we are working to resolve it. In the meantime, if you uncheck the box that says “[X] my billing address is the same as my shipping address” and fill the information out twice, this seems to work for most people. We are sorry for the inconvenience! You may want to consider updating your browser to a newer version to ensure that the site will function. For other problems ordering, please see this article in our support section.

If you haven’t ordered your yet, you can get it at timesulin.com/webshop – we are offering free shipping if you order 2 or more caps. And to all the people that have already ordered, we hope that Timesulin can provide some additional peace of mind in your daily life!

If you’re received your Timesulin cap, why not share a photo of your pen sporting its new ‘head gear’ via our Facebook page? We look forward to hearing from you!

What a feeling!

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Susan Moolman

It’s only been a few days since we opened the Timesulin web shop’s virtual doors and the response from people who have already received their ‘smart caps’ has been incredible. It makes all those months of hard word absolutely worth it.

Have you received your Timesulin cap yet? How has it changed your life? Let us know how you feel about it by leaving a comment or visiting our Facebook page. If you have any support questions, please point your browser to http://support.timesulin.com/ where our helpful team is standing by to assist you.

Timesulin opens its (web) doors to the public

Posted on February 6, 2012 by John Sjölund

It is an immensely proud day in my life as a person living with diabetes for over 26 years to announce the European launch of Timesulin. Timesulin was an idea originally conceived in 2008 by co-founder – and my brother – Andreas Sjölund to once and for all end the issue I faced with forgetting if I have taken my insulin injections or not.

As somebody who takes at least four insulin injections per day – 28 shots per week, 120 shots per month or a minimum of 1460 injections per year – I’m going to forget sometimes, right? For many years I asked my doctors and nurses why there was not a simple solution to this problem and I could never get an answer. To this day there still remains no way for those of us who use different types and brands of insulin to know with certainty when we last took our insulin. Well, I should say up to yesterday there was no solution. The solution has arrived and now we can focus all that energy into other aspects of our lives! Living with diabetes is a 24/7 job. Despite our best efforts, it’s tough everyday – we at Timesulin are aiming to make one aspect of life just a little bit more simple.

Some interesting facts of how we got to this point:

There have been over 100 iterations of the design of the product with many, many different features before we got to the final product. Below is an early 3D rendering that the third co-founder and Timesulin CTO Marcel Botha created – my directive as a user? Make it less bulky!

We also tested many different formations of the clip to see how we could maximise function and aesthetics of the product. After all, we didn’t want our product to create any additional bulk. It needs to fit in our pockets, our jeans, our backpacks or handbags and our lives – just as well as the original.

We also tested lots of different features in the product including alarms, memory functions, dosing information etc. While I am sure that all of us living with diabetes can benefit from more information and more data – sometimes we just want to make our lives a little bit simpler and balanced. Our idea was to produce something that was so easy to use that it didn’t even require an instruction manual. No new systems to learn, no menus to navigate, no clocks to program and no buttons to push. It does one important thing well – when you get that feeling in your body wondering if you took your insulin or not – Timesulin lets you know when the last time you took your insulin was. Simple.

Today we are releasing the first three Timesulin caps that together cover 10 different types of the most common insulin types for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We have received many thousands of requests to develop caps for additional pens and all I can say is – watch this space, we are hoping to be able to solve this problem for everybody.

Being a Timesulin user over the last months has been a fantastic experience for me. It hasn’t solve all issues with my diabetes, but it makes one aspect of it easier for me. I hope that the product works for you and gives you a little more time to concentrate on something other than your diabetes.

Now help us tell the world about this handy new device so we can help as many others living with this same frustration every day lead a life that is just a little bit easier! And if you’ve already received your Timesulin cap, please share the experience with us via our Facebook page, or via Twitter. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Thank you for all the support thus far,

/John, a proud person with diabetes of over 26 years.

Leicestershire Parents Group of Diabetes UK

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Susan Moolman

Yesterday John and I traveled from London to Loughborough in Leicestershire county to share news of Timesulin with the parents group there. John also gave a talk on his experiences as someone who has lived with Type 1 for over 26 years. It was such an honour to be invited to attend this event where over 150 people came with one thing in common…a wish to learn more about managing diabetes and making life for those living with it a little easier.

Also at the event was the racecar driver Paul O’Neill who was diagnosed with Type 1 about eight years ago. What a great guy! Despite his Type 1 diagnosis, Paul is one of Britain’s best on the car racing scene. Paul is now using Timesulin smart caps on his Lantus and NovoRapid insulin pens and has promised us some feedback, which I’ll share with you soon.

Usability Heuristics in Design – John Sjölund’s talk at the IDF Congress in Dubai

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Susan Moolman

The CEO of Timesulin, John Sjölund, was invited to deliver a presentation on usability heuristics in design at the IDF’s World Diabetes Congress in December 2011. His talk focused on patient-led design and how these principles were engaged to create Timesulin – a simple product that addresses a global daily need, but which requires no change in the users’ habits, doesn’t need to be programmed and is affordable.

Watch the full presentation here:

Interview on DSMA Live

Posted on January 27, 2012 by John Sjölund

Last night Cherise Shockley and Scott Johnson from DSMA hosted me on their popular blog radio show to talk about life with diabetes, how the idea for Timesulin came about, how I manage my diabetes during the endurance sport races I participate in and the IDF’s Young Leaders Programme, which I serve on the faculty of. It was great sharing my experiences with their listeners – bar the fact that it meant being awake and talking between 2am and 3am London time!

Thank you very much for hosting me, DSMA! I look forward to visiting again.

For those of you who missed it, you can stream the interview here:

Listen to internet radio with DiabetesSocMed on Blog Talk Radio

Join John on DSMA Live!

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Susan Moolman

Every Wednesday evening, there is a moderated hour-long Twitter chat (Diabetes Social Media Advocacy or #DSMA) dedicated to diabetes-themed discussions. Varied members of the diabetes online community come together to share their thoughts and opinions on issues that are important to them. Topics have included: juggling diabetes at work or school, online privacy, regulatory agencies, advocating for diabetes, and many more.

The conversation is taken a step further on Thursdays via a live interview known as DSMA Live. Each week, Cherise Shockley along with co-hosts George Simmons and Scott Johnson, speak about the current week’s topic with a different guest. People participate by calling in or chatting on the message board.

We are thrilled to announce that John Sjölund, Timesulin CEO, will be the guest on Thursday the 26th of January 2012. You can participate in the conversation from twitter by joining Cherise, George, Scott and John Thursday 26 January at 9 PM EDT on DSMA Live (blog talk radio).

For our European friends who are likely to be sleeping at 3am UK time, you’ll be able to download the conversation from itunes here on Friday.