[idealmedtech]

Finally a thing I'm qualified to talk about! This is my area of expertise. The term "artificial pancreas" is a historical artefact of the original systems from the 1980s, which called anything that controlled blood sugar effectively an "artificial pancreas". These systems do not cover any of the hepatic or hormonal functions of the pancreas, just the malfunctioning islet cell part.

That being said, commoditization of a fully closed loop insulin delivery system would be a godsend for the millions of people living with completely uncontrolled diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes accounts for between 30-40% of raw healthcare spend every year, and it's growing. Primary care like this will keep patients adhering to it out of the hospital and improve their lives immeasurably.

So no, I wouldn't compare this to an insulin pump alone. It's like comparing the latest self driving cars out of Waymo to the cruise control on a 1994 Corolla.

The results (66% TIR 70-180mg/dL) aren't incredible, but believe it or not are far better than most diabetics are able to get. For reference, a person without diabetes will typically have numbers in the 95% or higher range.

We're currently finishing a study in the hospital to improve on these results in a big way!