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Insulin Pump Avatars Join Nintendo Game


 

More than a million Americans use wearable prescription insulin pumps, but you wouldn’t know it from any media portrayals.

In fact, according to a Thrivable survey conducted this fall for Omnipod pump provider Insulet, 94% of people with type 1 diabetes said it’s important to see such representation, but 51% say they rarely or never do so.

Insulet is doing its part with Omnipod Bay, a recently activated user-generated island located in Nintendo Switch’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons game.

“People living with type 1 diabetes, in particular, do not feel represented in society and culture,” Lei Mercado, Insulet’s chief marketing officert, told Marketing Daily. “We want to change that – and to motivate other brands, TV shows, and others to accurately represent diabetes in pop culture.”

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Animal Crossing users can now access 19 custom outfits that allow avatars to wear insulin pumps or carry diabetes supply bags. Styles, available in multlple skin tones, include the Gladiator Dress, a “chic black slip dress with a stylish high slit to show off your Pod,” and Pump it Up,” a “long-sleeve shirt that shows off your midriff and your diabetes technology.”

Once on Omnipod Bay, the avatars can engage in such activities as scavenger hunts, playing with diabetic alert dogs, visiting fruit stalls with carb counts, or snapping social media-friendly selfies of their specially outfitted characters. They can also visit booths for such advocacy groups as JDRF, Beyond Type 1, Children with Diabetes, and Kyler Cares.

Insulet has worked particularly close on the activation with JDRF, whose Game2Give program has raised some $2 million from the video game community since 2019.

Whjle 37.3 million Americans have diabetes, according to the CDC, about 1.9 million have type 1, which has also been called juvenile diabetes, with 63% of them using insulin pumps, according to the nonprofit TD1 Exchange.

Type 1 diabetics require daily insulin, which can be in the form of injections or insulin pumps. The pumps, about the size of a pager, are worn outside of the body. These originally dispensed insulin at regular intervals via a tube that went under the skin, until Insulet introduced tubeless versions with Omnipod.

Insulet has been selling its Omnipods since 2005, with the latest innovation being Omnipod 5, the first tubeless system with smartphone control, approved by the FDA in late January.

Insulet’s competitors in the insulin pump market include Medtronic, Tandem and Sooil

DPI Research estimates that the U.S. insulin pump market size will exceed $6 billion by 2027.

 

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