Artificial Pancreas Just Years Away, Experts Agree

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2640595920080726

Maggie Fox July 26, 2008

This article focuses on the timeframe for when an artificial pancreas may come full-swing to market. The general consensus among researchers working on the project is that a fully-functioning artificial pancreas will be on the market within five years. Currently, many clinical trials have shown that the artificial pancreas is near perfect, with the new pancreas regulating glucose levels much more thoroughly than that in the diabetic patient’s body. As people with diabetes cannot constantly check their glucose levels, generally they are limited to checking at most twenty times a day. While the artificial pancreas is not perfect yet, it monitors glucose levels continuously and thus still may function better than the actual, bodily pancreas, particularly for young children who cannot check insulin levels themselves and thus require constant parent supervision. But before the new technology can be marketed, several of its quirks must first be fixed. Researchers are confident that these will be fixed in several years, but many diabetic patients are extremely anxious for this new technology to reach the market, having found immense success in clinical trials.