A team of researchers has developed an iPhone-sized device that can help patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes monitor their blood glucose levels regularly. The device will most probably be made available to the patients by the year 2018.
In addition to monitoring the blood glucose level, the device that works like an artificial pancreas automatically injects the right or the required amount of insulin to the body of the patient at regular intervals. The device, which is attached to the clothing of the patients, works by monitoring the levels of blood sugar and accordingly injecting the right amount of insulin.
This medical breakthrough has been achieved by a team of researchers from Roman Hokorva and Hood Thabit of the University of Cambridge in the UK. The team claims to have compared the study findings and figured out how the device behaves in children and adults.
During their assessment of the device, the researchers found that the artificial pancreas efficiently managed Type 1 diabetes in patients and also reduced the amount of time that people have to send on fluctuation sugar levels, as compared to a self-administering device.
The research team believes that the artificial pancreas could soon completely eliminate the need for the patients to undergo a pancreas transplant. The artificial pancreas is expected to be made available to people in the US in 2017 and in 2018 to those in the UK and Europe.
In the meantime, the research team is planning to test the device on multiple parameters, including convenience, accuracy, reliability and cyber security. The team wants to make sure that the device is protected against hacking.
The complete details of the artificial pancreas have been published in the journal Diabetologia.
