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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."
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.