Artificial Pancreas System Uses Smartphone to Monitor Insulin Levels
A device developed by University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers to automatically monitor and regulate blood sugar levels in people with type 1 diabetes will undergo final testing in two clinical trials beginning early this year. The device consists of a reconfigured smartphone running advanced algorithms, linked wirelessly with a blood glucose monitor and an insulin pump, and communicating with Internet services in real time. The system's developers intend for it to monitor and regulate blood-sugar levels automatically, report to a remote-monitoring site, and link the user with assistance via telemedicine as needed. This would save users from having to stick their fingers to check their glucose levels multiple times a day and eliminate the need for countless syringes to inject insulin manually.
Transcript
00:00:02 [Music] I started back in 1996 with applying various mathematical methods to diabetes and uh the prompt for that was my father who had diabetes and was an insulin so I've seen firsthand uh how it looks with injections and without good measurement systems it became evident around 2005 that there is a chance to close the loop between a sensor and a pump with some
00:00:37 really smart algorithm so we've been doing that um since the so-called artificial pancreas or Clos Loop control of diabetes as the scientific work is a network of devices that uh are around a person with diabetes and that includes an insulin pump that delivers insulin a glucose sensor that uh measures blood sugar levels every few minutes like every 5 minutes and controller in
00:01:05 between which takes the data from the sensor and controls the insulin pump and in our case this controller is implemented in a smartphone so it's a full mobile portable medical Network that is around the patient at the time uh they are wearing an artificial pancreas we have uh studies running in six centers in the US three centers in Europe and one in Israel the latest
00:01:30 study was uh 6 months uh of 14 people at home and uh are doing great I have to admit the artificial pancreas is aiming to eliminate both severe hypoglycemic episodes and prolonged hyperglycemia and therefore improve the overall diabetes control of a person