Eight Life-Changing Diabetes Breakthroughs
The year 2016 was eventful in diabetes care and treatment. Breakthroughs in medications and methods of glucose monitoring made headlines.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) noted that, “An individual diabetes care plan is a core tenet of our Standards of Care and woven throughout the Association’s guidelines. With each health-care device and medication, people with diabetes get access to new options that help them manage their diabetes more effectively, providing opportunities to improve quality of life and health outcomes. 2016 offered a number of key advancements in the tools available to people with diabetes.”
Insulin pump makes dosing decisions
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first time approved a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device that could make medication-dosing decisions automatically using the CGM data. Before, the monitor’s results required confirmation using a fingerstick glucometer before the patient made any insulin decisions.
The Medtronic MiniMed 670G automated insulin delivery pump (AIDP) combines an insulin pump with a sensor measuring a person’s blood glucose level. The device then automatically adjusts basal insulin coverage as needed.
“Some call it a ‘bionic pancreas’; while it isn’t that, the 670G does represent a big leap forward from a regulatory perspective,” said John Buse, MD, PhD, director of the Diabetes Center at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill. “This is the first time the FDA has allowed a device to actually administer insulin without human intervention.”
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