The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the artificial pancreas based on technology from the University of Virginia's Center for Diabetes Technology. The system automatically monitors and adjusts blood glucose levels for patients with type 1 diabetes.
“We are thrilled that our decade-long research culminated in a large-scale clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has been successfully translated into clinical practice". He stated it Boris Kovatchev, director of the center and "father" of the artificial pancreas.
What is artificial pancreas
It is a new generation interoperable blood glucose control system. It perfectly integrates a glucose sensor, an insulin pump and an intelligent control algorithm.
The system, called Control-IQ and produced by Tandem Diabetes Care, appears to improve the performance of the previous device made by Medtronic. It tracks blood glucose levels in real time and automatically delivers insulin when needed. The system frees people from testing their blood sugar levels multiple times a day by pricking their finger and then taking insulin via multiple daily injections.
The artificial pancreas is the ideal treatment
The approval of the American FDA follows the results of a multicenter clinical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which effectively evaluated the new artificial pancreas system as the most effective of existing treatments to control glucose levels in the blood in people with type 1 diabetes.
The study showed that the system improved blood sugar control both during the day and at night.
A systematic review
168 participants aged 14 or over with type 1 diabetes were distributed into two groups. The former received the artificial pancreas, the latter received non-automatic glucose pump treatment.
