FDA Approves Wearable "Artificial Pancreas"

kkleiner writes "The FDA has approved a device that acts as an "artificial pancreas", which both continuously monitors a patient's glucose levels and injects appropriate amounts of insulin when needed. When blood-sugar levels become low, the device from Medtronics warns the wearer and will eventually shut down. The MiniMed 530G looks to offer an on-the-go solution for the growing number of people suffering from Type 1 diabetes who have to test their blood and inject insulin throughout the day. The company plans to improve the device to make a fully automated version down the road."

Comments

Re:Cool

[Chrontius]

It's probably cheaper than any other method of managing their condition like amputation, disability payments, and nursing homes.

Keeping diabetes from going from the "cheap to manage" to "terribly expensive" stage is probably, like most other healthcare things, a net savings once you get to even the medium term.

Re:Insta-death

[levork]

My wife is a long term Type One Diabetic and has worn a pump and CGMS for years, so I'm somewhat qualified to answer here:

If the insulin pump fails to deliver insulin, won't the diabetic notice with their next glucose test?

Yes, the diabetic will notice. In fact, the CGMS (continuous glucose monitoring system) itself will notice and should alarm (and the article is about a pump with a CGMS built in). Keep in mind that the pump can actually fail to deliver insulin because the tubing is kinked, or the injection site is occluded - so this can be a more common occurrence than you think and isn't actually directly due to pump failure.

Don't most travel with spare insulin and a few syringes, in case of pump failure, at least for long distance travel?

Yep. My wife's diabetic medical supplies easily take up half of her carry on baggage.

Conversely, what happens if the insulin is all delivered at once? An insulin pump holds what, typically, a few days of insulin? Can a diabetic keep ingesting enough sugar with juice or soda or candy to keep their blood sugar up for brain function, even if the insulin dose is overwhelmingly high?

This is the scary scenario. It's never happened to my wife, and the pump manufacturers had better go to great lengths to ensure it never happens. The type of insulin used in a pump is fast acting, so if all the insulin is delivered at once she will pretty much immediately need to eat a lot of sugar or go into a coma. We're talking entire bags of cookies within minutes.