The daily lives of Type 1 diabetes patients just got a little easier, thanks to Boris Kovatchev, the director of the University Center for Diabetes Technology, and Asst. Research Prof. Patrick Keith-Hynes.
Currently, patients with Type 1 diabetes must frequently prick their fingers to check their glucose levels throughout the day. But Kovatchev and Keith-Hynes have created an artificial pancreas to monitor and regulate blood sugar and save patients from the time-consuming annoyance.
Type 1 diabetes, often known as juvenile diabetes, is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin, which is necessary for the body to utilize sugars for energy. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, the cause of Type 1 diabetes is generally unrelated to diet and is most often associated with genetics. Designing a computerized insulin pump to manage these patients’ blood sugar levels is fraught with complications.
“Automatic insulin pumps can be a bit tricky… but then so can all other methods of insulin injection,” University emergency room technician Schuyler Wong said. “If someone with an automatic pump eats breakfast a bit late, and forgets to deactivate their pump, there are serious consequences.”
The artificial pancreas, however, regularly checks blood sugar levels and then reports it to a remote monitoring site. An accompanying device — a reconfigured smartphone — is able to link a blood glucose monitor and an insulin pump to the internet.
There have already been successful outpatient trials of the pancreas in both the United States and in Europe. The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved clinical trials for an artificial pancreas, and the National Institute for Health has provided a $3.4 million grant to fund three clinical trials at the University and at Stanford. There will be pediatric trials at Stanford and adult trials at the University.
“Our plan is to conduct several substantial studies in the next three to five years, which should bring the artificial pancreas to a level acceptable for implementation in the clinical practice,” Kovatchev said. “From there, regulatory approval and commercial application should occur, but these activities are out of the scope of an academic project.”
If approved, Kovatchev said this new technology could dramatically improve some diabetic patients’ day-to-day care.
“Anyone who is on insulin therapy … could benefit from this technology,” he said. “It is intended for people who need insulin replacement. Integration of the artificial pancreas in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes in particular is virtually certain in the near future.”
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