So today I am going to talk about new and emerging medical devices. I am only going to talk about medical devices and will talk about research and new medical treatments another day. So there are some really amazing new things happening in the world of T1D, and it is all going to happen within the next 3 years… well hopefully… they say it is going to. The problem with new drugs and devices is the very rigorous, expensive, and time consuming trials and human trials. For a new drug/device to get to the human trial takes YEARS of research and reports to back up the research and then the company has to hope they are granted permission to conduct a human trial. This costs millions of dollars, yes millions, and unfortunately a lot of amazing new devices and technologies never make it that far, or if they do they run out of funding. There is an amazing new documentary coming out soon called “The Human Trial” and it is about a company called Viacyte and the “pod” like device that is surgically planted into the T1D patient so it can deliver stem-cell derived Islet cells to the patient… yes the very islet cells that produce insulin and since they are stem cells, (stem cells are very smart), they don’t have the same cellular background as beta cells (where islet cells are made), so the autoimmune disease doesn’t kill these new islet cells. This is huuuuugggeee, but is also not perfect. The inserted pod does have a live span and will need to be replaced. This whole endeavor is very interesting and I highly recommend checking out “the Human Trial”. Even though it isn’t finished yet, the documentary gives great insight on how long and hard the whole trial process is. Just a FYI all the trial applications and processes are regulated by the FDA. Also a lot of the trials that lead up to the human trials, where they start all the research, starts with animals, mostly mice with T1D. I know this isn’t a pretty fact, but it is a fact. If you are interested in learning more about the documentary “The Human Trial” check it out! https://thehumantrial.com
Ok, so the other day when I was explaining insulin pumps and CGMs I know a lot of you were thinking, so the CGM doesn’t talk to the pump and then the pump makes adjustments according to the BG reading? Yes, you would think that would totally exist, and it now does. This is called the artificial pancreas and Medtronic won the race to the finish. There were about 3 other companies working on one. One was Animas and they lost either funding, or pump reprogramming wasn’t working because they just announced they are closing down for good. Gone, and this is the pump I have… so yeah. So the Medtronic Artificial Pancreas will be out this winter early next year. It works with their sensor and will suspend when your BG reads really low… Manual meal boluses are still required with this model. This is huuuugggee too! There is a waiting list already.
Next is an interesting venture. It started with a man whose wife and son had T1D. He was in finance and automated stock trading he used what he knew about algorithms and insulin/carb ratio to create models for blood sugar trends. Then he high-jacked his wife’s pump and reprogrammed it to speak to the CGM. This new unit works as an artificial pancreas of sorts. The difference is he took two existing devices and just made them communicate to each other and have the pump make dosage changes according to the algorithm. This is amazing! So, he got a team together to create Bigfoot Biomedical and wanted to get the coding and algorithm out there, but because it is a medical device that delivers medication AND will regulate BG then they have to go through the trial/human trial process. Bigfoot also had to create their own insulin pump, since if you mess with your existing pump it voids the warranty, which is something you really need on a life saving device. They are looking to come out with their product in 2020.
It was just announced this week in Europe they have approved a 180 day CGM, which is amazing. Right now the longest the FDA has approved a CGM is 7 days. There are a lot of questions with this new one…such as cost, size, as in transmitter size and actual filament size. So I will keep you up to date as I know more.
Lastly there is a new CGM coming to the market called the Freestyle Libre. This CGM is a bit different because it uses a “watch” style receiver that reads when waved over the transmitter on the body. This one sounds good but is missing both the high BG and low BG alarms which are an essential part of why most T1Ds wear a CGM.
There are other devices coming out too but these are the most exciting ones. It sounds like things are a moving and a grooving right? Well we with T1D have been hearing about these for YEARS… really years.. this is how long the process takes. Also,
a lot of times after something new like this is released they make quite a few changes, tweaks here and there throughout the next year because the products are actually being used and they are getting feed back on what works and what needs to be changed. Also the price is higher when they first come out, they need to recoup some of that money they had to spend throughout the trial process and after 1-2 years the price usually drops. So we are moving forward in the T1D technology world… but not as fast as you would think. The moral of the story is nothing, nothing works as well as our bodies, even the most advanced technology.
Needlestosay 