Tandem’s Control-IQ+ and the Dexcom G7, explained
Tandem’s updated Control-IQ+ algorithm works with the Dexcom G7 on both the Mobi and t:slim X2 pumps.
Control-IQ+ is the software that adjusts insulin inside Tandem’s insulin pumps, and this update lets it work with the newer Dexcom G7 glucose sensor on both of Tandem’s pumps, the Mobi and the t:slim X2. It also adds small automatic correction doses, where the system itself tops up insulin between meals when it predicts a high. In the US it now covers adults with type 2 as well as people with type 1 from age 2. In the UK the pumps and the G7 both exist, but exactly which pairings you can get depends on UK clearance.
- Control-IQ+ is the algorithm, the software brain, that reads a sensor and adjusts your background insulin: a pump and sensor working together like this is called a closed loop.
- The update adds support for the Dexcom G7, a newer, smaller version of the sensor, on both the Tandem Mobi and the t:slim X2 pumps.
- It can now give automatic correction doses: the system delivers small top-ups of insulin on its own when it sees glucose heading high.
- You still give the dose for meals yourself, so this is a hybrid closed loop: it handles the background, you handle the food.
- Which pump and sensor combination you can actually get varies by country, so what applies to you in the UK is a question for your team.
What Control-IQ+ actually does
A Tandem pump running Control-IQ+ is a hybrid closed loop. The pump reads your Dexcom sensor every few minutes and nudges your background insulin up or down to keep you in range, and with this version it can also give small correction doses on its own when it predicts your glucose is climbing. The word hybrid matters: it looks after the background, but you still give the dose for meals, because it cannot see the food coming.
None of that involves you working out a number from this article. The system decides its own adjustments, and any settings behind it are set up with your diabetes team. What is new here is mainly the sensor it can use and the automatic corrections it can make.
What is US news and what reaches you
The page announcing this is US-focused, and part of it, the clearance for adults with type 2, is a US regulatory step rather than a UK change. Tandem pumps and the Dexcom G7 are both available in the UK, but which exact combination of pump, sensor and algorithm version you can get here depends on UK clearance, which can lag or differ from the US.
So the practical takeaway is small: nothing for you to change yourself. If you use a Tandem pump, your team can tell you whether it runs Control-IQ+ with the G7 in the UK or with a different sensor. If you are interested in an automated system, that same conversation is where to start.