Insulin Pens & Smart Pens

The majority of people using insulin use insulin pens as their delivery method. Insulin injections have been a trusted method of taking insulin since it was invented over one hundred years ago.

However, the injection style has changed a lot over that time. At one point, the injection set almost looked like a gun to the EpiPen style of the 1990s. When I was diagnosed in 1993, I used hypodermic needles to inject, but this was replaced in 2001 with injection pens which look a lot like EpiPens, and they are a lot more convenient and discreet.

Now we have Smart Injection pens which connect to Smartphone Apps where you can record insulin dosing and information from CGMs. The image below shows some examples of the types of disposable insulin pens available.

Smart Insulin Pens

At the moment, there are two types of Smart Insulin Pens available in Ireland; the Novo Nordisk pens and Medtronic’s InPen.

Medtronic InPen

Medtronic's InPen, the Bluetooth-enabled InPen keeps track of dosing information. Medtronic InPen Smart Insulin Pen system is available in Ireland on the LTI.

The Smart MDI system combines Guardian™ 4 Smart* CGM system with the InPen™ Smart Insulin Pen System. The InPen™ system is designed to assist with tracking of insulin doses and dose calculations.

At this time, InPen™ system is compatible with Lilly Humalog®, Lilly Lyumjev®, Novo Nordisk NovoRapid®, Novo Nordisk Fiasp® and Novo Nordisk Insulin Aspart Injection, 3mL cartridges (300 units).

Find out more about the Medtronic InPen system here.

Novo Nordisk Insulin Pens

The NovoPen® 6 & NovoPen Echo® Plus are new, smart insulin pens that record the time and date of all injected doses as well as the number of units dosed.

You can view your insulin dosing information side by side with glucose information on compatible apps. With NovoPen® 6 & NovoPen Echo® Plus, you can transfer your insulin dosing information to your preferred diabetes app (Glooko, LibreLink and MySugr and share it with your healthcare provider.

The Novo Nordisk Smart Pen system is only available with Novo Nordisk brands of insulins.

Find out more about Novo Nordisk’s Smart Pens here.