I’ve talked a lot about the regulatory happenings with the artificial pancreas, but I thought you all may be interested in a research update too.
While JDRF is busy working with FDA to pave the way for future studies, including those in the home setting, the researchers are continuing to test the systems they develop and are getting really promising results.
The most recent results that have been announced are from Cambridge. Roman Hovorka and his team there tested a closed loop insulin delivery system overnight and compared it to conventional insulin pump therapy in adults with type 1 diabetes. They did this under two scenarios - ‘eating in’ (medium sized meal of 60 g carbohydrates at 7pm) or ‘eating out’ (large sized meal of 100 g carbohydrates and white wine at 8:30pm). Overnight closed loop control increased the time in the glucose target range by 15% after ‘eating in’ and by 28% after ‘eating out’ showing that the devices were able to improve blood glucose control as well as reduce the risk of dangerous low blood sugars overnight. Read the full study from the British Medical Journal here. This study was supported by the use of algorithms developed by Dr. Hovorka in previous JDRF-funded studies.
JDRF funds researchers at many different institutions including:
Many of these will likely be institutions that run outpatient studies and, in fact, many are planning them now. We want them to be able to start those studies as soon as they are ready without a long delay for regulatory approval, so we are working with FDA now to ensure that happens.
Have you participated in artificial pancreas research? Tell us your story here.
Thanks for posting the study from the British Medical Journal. Looking forward to reading more stories like this from the US outpatient trials.