Medtronic’s new all-in-one sensor for the 780G pump
Medtronic’s smaller, disposable Simplera Sync sensor gained US FDA approval for use with the MiniMed 780G closed-loop system.
Medtronic has a new glucose sensor, called Simplera Sync, for its MiniMed 780G insulin pump. It won US approval in April 2025. The point of it is that it is smaller and simpler than the sensors the 780G used before: one small disposable unit, with no separate transmitter to click on and no fingerprick calibrations. The 780G is used in the UK, so a sensor like this may reach UK users later, but there is no confirmed UK date yet, so nothing about your current sensor changes now.
- The MiniMed 780G is an automated insulin pump: it reads a glucose sensor and adjusts your background insulin for you, which is often called a closed loop.
- Simplera Sync is an all-in-one sensor: the older Medtronic sensors needed a separate reusable transmitter sitting on top, and this one does not.
- It needs no fingerprick calibrations, the routine finger checks some sensors used to require to stay accurate.
- This is a US approval only. The 780G is available in the UK, but a US clearance is not a UK launch, and no UK date has been confirmed.
- There is nothing to do: you keep using your current sensor until your diabetes team tells you an option here has changed.
What the new sensor actually changes
On 18 April 2025, the US regulator approved the Simplera Sync sensor for use with the MiniMed 780G. The sensor is the part that reads your glucose and sends the numbers to the pump, so the pump can keep managing your insulin. Medtronic’s older sensors came in two parts: a sensor under the skin and a separate, reusable transmitter you clipped on top. Simplera Sync rolls that into one small disposable unit you apply and later throw away.
Two practical things come with that. It is physically smaller, so there is less to wear and notice. And it does away with fingerprick calibrations, the finger checks some sensors needed to stay accurate. Less kit and fewer steps is the whole point of it.
Where this leaves UK users
The 780G pump itself is used in the UK, which is why this is worth knowing rather than ignoring. A smaller, simpler sensor that works with it could reach UK users in time. But an approval in the US does not set a UK date, and none has been confirmed, so this is a heads-up about direction, not a change you can act on.
If you use a 780G, keep using the sensor you have. When you are next in clinic, it is reasonable to ask which sensors your pump supports in the UK now and whether anything smaller is expected, so you hear it from the people who actually manage what is available here.