Medtronic gives hope to the type 1 diabetics as it sets the stage of them getting closer to the future of an artificial pancreas device as their clinical study proved that an insulin pump can automatically stop the flow of insulin once it detects that the blood sugar level had normalized.
These insulin pumps were developed by the medical technology company based in Minnesota and already available in over 50 countries outside US. Once the FDA approves the device, approximately 3 million Americans will benefit from it.
Monitoring the blood sugar must be done several times a day by type 1 diabetics and need insulin as soon as they found out that their blood sugar level is already increasing. Failure to normalize the blood sugar may lead to serious complications such as kidney failure, blindness, and heart disease.
The device release was held by the U.S regulators because they would like to have Medtronic comply with their clinical trial standards first to ensure the safety of the patients. Medtronic launched project ASPIRE which involved 247 people. Each patient was given an insulin pump for them to use at home.
The results of the study proved that the device is safe to use. It cut the amount of time and duration that the patient went below their safe blood sugar level by 37.5 percent. They also compared the device with other devices that don’t have an automatic shutoff feature in which they found out that that the episodes of low blood sugar level was 31.8 percent lower for their patients compared to the competitors.
The results of this study were immediately reported to the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago and published on the June 22 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.
Insulin pumps and artificial pancreas
The insulin pumps are definitely not part of the artificial pancreas but this progress is very important for diabetes advocates, medical device companies, and researchers. They have been dreaming of creating an artificial pancreas using an intricate system of pumps and sensors which will make maintenance and treatment automatic for type 1 diabetics by copying the function of a real pancreas.
The insulin pumps had proven that automatic function is possible as it automatically shutoffs when needed. Kids will be able to survive even if no adult is around to monitor their blood sugar for them and give them the right amount of insulin.
"The study results are important as we continue to move toward our goal of developing a fully automated system, or artificial pancreas, that will one day require very minimal interaction from the patient," Dr. Francine Kaufman , lead author of the study and vice president of global medical affairs for Medtronics said during the diabetes meeting.
