̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Diabetes UK

World’s first artificial pancreas app licensed for people with type 1 diabetes in UK

cjb250 — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 00:39:50 +0000

̽��ֱ��CamAPS FX app works with an insulin pump and a glucose monitor to automatically deliver insulin to people living with the condition via a complex algorithm.

Around 400,000 people in the UK are affected by type 1 diabetes, 29,000 of them children. It is a chronic, life-threatening condition that has a life-long impact on those diagnosed with it and their families. Currently, people with type 1 diabetes rely on a routine of finger-prick blood tests and insulin injections or infusions just to stay alive, because their pancreas no longer produces insulin itself.

̽��ֱ��app - which Professor Hovorka hopes will become available on the NHS in the future - will take over much of the management of the condition. This is particularly important at night, when many people with type 1 diabetes experience potentially dangerous low blood glucose levels.

̽��ֱ��app can also upload the user’s blood glucose measurements seamlessly to Diasend, an online platform, allowing their diabetes team to provide more personalised care.

̽��ֱ��CamAPS FX app is backed by 13 years of clinical research carried out by Professor Hovorka and his research group at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science. It is licensed for use by both adults and children with the condition and is the first artificial pancreas system to be licensed for use in pregnancy, or by young children aged one and above.

Professor Hovorka said: “This is a major stepping stone towards providing widely available, clinically proven, and user-friendly artificial pancreas technology to people with type 1 diabetes.

“Our aim is to alleviate the ever-present burden of type 1 diabetes and improve health outcomes. This is the outcome of hard work, with more to come. We are indebted to all who are helping us on this journey.”

At launch, the app will be supported by a small number of UK diabetes clinics. People who wish to use the app will need to confirm which clinic they attend, and must be using a Dana RS pump and a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor.

Professor Hovorka and his research team will work to continue to bring this technology to all who need it, via the NHS. Key to this will be the generation of data to support the case for NHS provision.

̽��ֱ��commercial launch is a milestone in the journey towards a fully automated artificial pancreas for everyone with type 1 diabetes. Such technology will fundamentally change life with the condition by working with a range of insulin pumps and glucose monitors to lift the burden of managing a condition that is relentlessly unpredictable day and night.

Professor Hovorka will continue refining the artificial pancreas through research into mealtime glucose control and improving ease of use.

̽��ֱ��research behind the app has been funded by the type 1 diabetes charity JDRF, Diabetes UK, the National Institute for Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, Horizon 2020, and the Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Karen Addington, UK Chief Executive of JDRF, said: “JDRF is proud to have supported Professor Hovorka’s artificial pancreas research from the beginning, nearly 15 years ago. This app is a major innovation and a significant milestone on the road to a fully automated and interoperable artificial pancreas. There’s still more work to do, but this is an exciting step.”

Fiona O’Reilly, who has been using the app as part of a clinical trial, said: “Overall, it makes me feel free. It is the closest I have been to living without the burden of type 1 diabetes since I was diagnosed, which is a fabulous feeling – I feel less fearful of hypoglycaemia, and less ashamed of the fact that I find achieving good glycaemic control so tricky.

“And it makes me feel more positive of my future with diabetes, that I have a chance of avoiding all the associated complications. It also makes me feel lucky to live in a time where this technology is possible and really grateful to be given the chance to try it out.”

̽��ֱ��app is now available for UK users to download onto Android phones via the Amazon Appstore. ̽��ֱ��app is available on a subscription basis starting at £70 per month.

Adapted from a press release by the JDRF.

̽��ֱ��world’s first licensed, downloadable artificial pancreas app for people with type 1 diabetes launches today, based on over a decade of research by Professor Roman Hovorka at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This is a major stepping stone towards providing widely available, clinically proven, and user friendly artificial pancreas technology to people with type 1 diabetes

Roman Hovorka

Screenshot from CamAPS FX app

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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World first for artificial pancreas team

cjb250 — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 13:35:46 +0000

Body artist Catriona Finlayson-Wilkins from Norfolk has type 1 diabetes, but used an artificial pancreas to produce insulin throughout her pregnancy. She gave birth to a boy at Norfolk and Norwich ̽��ֱ�� Hospital on Tuesday. She is the first mother in the world to use the device to give birth outside the main research site at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals. Three mothers have previously given birth, but all via caesarian section.

Women who have diabetes in pregnancy face higher rates of birth defects, oversized babies, pre-term delivery and stillbirth than other pregnant women. It is estimated that up to one in twenty women giving birth in England and Wales have either pre-existing diabetes or gestational diabetes and the number with type 1 and type 2 diabetes is rising.

Body artist Catriona Finlayson-Wilkins

̽��ֱ��technology is being trialled by the Closed Loop in Pregnancy study, based at the Metabolic Research Laboratories at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge ̽��ֱ��pancreas is the organ which produces insulin, which is one of the main hormones that help to regulate blood glucose levels. In type 1 diabetes, the beta cells that produce insulin are attacked by the body's immune system so an artificial pancreas can help to maintain insulin production, keeping the symptoms of diabetes at bay.

̽��ֱ��artificial pancreas device system is a small, portable medical device that is being designed to carry out the function of a healthy pancreas in controlling blood glucose levels in women with Type 1 diabetes. It uses digital communication technology to automate insulin delivery. ̽��ֱ��system is worn externally on the body, and is made up of three functional components: continuous glucose monitoring, a computer algorithm (mathematical instructions which calculate the insulin dose), developed by Director of Research Dr Roman Hovorka, and an insulin pump. These three components are termed an artificial pancreas or ‘closed loop’.

Full results of the study are expected to be published later this year. If the findings are positive, this may pave the way for the technology to become available for more women with diabetes who conceive in the future.

Dr Helen Murphy, Senior Research Associate/Honorary Consultant Physician at the Metabolic Research Laboratories and the Principal Investigator of the study, says that the first natural birth using the technology represents an exciting step forward in the treatment of diabetes in pregnancy. " ̽��ֱ��artificial pancreas is an exciting new technology that may help us to treat diabetes in pregnancy and create a group of healthier mothers and babies.”

Dr Zoe Stewart, a Gates Cambridge Scholar and Clinical Research Fellow on the study, said: “Treating diabetes in pregnancy can be particularly challenging because hormone levels are constantly changing and blood sugars can be difficult to predict. I study new treatments for diabetes in pregnancy and it's great to see our research helping mums have healthier pregnancies.”

̽��ֱ��research has been supported by Gates Cambridge, Diabetes UK and the National Institute for Health Research.

̽��ֱ��first natural birth to a mother with diabetes who has been fitted with an artificial pancreas took place this week. ̽��ֱ��device has been developed by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��artificial pancreas is an exciting new technology that may help us to treat diabetes in pregnancy and create a group of healthier mothers and babies

Helen Murphy

Diabetes UK

Artificial pancreas

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Artificial pancreas promise for common diabetes complication

gm349 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:26:10 +0000

Hypoglycaemia (or a ‘hypo’) occurs when the level of glucose in the blood falls too low. If left untreated the person having a hypo can eventually become unconscious after experiencing warning signs as the body tries to raise the blood glucose level. These unpleasant signs often include feeling shaky, sweating, tingling in the lips, heart pounding, and irritability. In extreme cases hypoglycaemia can lead to coma and brain damage, and can sometimes prove fatal.

̽��ֱ��‘artificial pancreas’ or closed-loop insulin delivery system automatically manages a person’s diabetes. ̽��ֱ��device regulates blood glucose levels by releasing insulin when alerted to high levels of glucose, and withholding it when levels are low. Currently people with Type 1 diabetes have to either inject insulin several times a day or wear an insulin pump² which releases the hormone via a cannula inserted under the skin.

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researcher Dr Roman Hovorka led two studies to evaluate the performance of the artificial pancreas in 10 men and 14 women, aged 18 to 65, who had used an insulin pump for at least three months.

̽��ֱ��first study monitored 12 participants overnight after consuming a medium-sized meal (60 g carbohydrate) at 7pm. In the second study, the other 12 participants were monitored overnight after consuming a larger meal (100 g carbohydrate) accompanied by alcohol at 8.30pm.

̽��ֱ��studies showed a 22 per cent improvement in the time participants kept their blood glucose levels in a safe range, halving the time they spent with low blood glucose levels and reducing the risk of both short term and long term complications.

Dr Hovorka said: “Hypoglycaemia remains a major challenge, especially during the night, so it’s encouraging to see such promising results from our trial using commercially available devices.

“ ̽��ֱ��study is a stepping stone to testing the artificial pancreas at home and suggests that the artificial pancreas may be suitable in adults as well as in children and adolescents we found previously.”

Diabetes UK Director of Research Dr Iain Frame said: “Although early days, this exciting area of research is a fantastic example of how existing technologies, in this case, insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, can be adapted and developed. ̽��ֱ��improvements in glucose control overnight using this new technology are impressive and it is good to see this work develop with the addition of testing the effects following a meal with some wine.

“We now need to see an extension of this study, one which tests larger numbers of people, and then take it out of the hospital and in to the home setting.”

̽��ֱ��research was published in the British Medical Journal today, 15 April.

Cambridge research funded by the health charity Diabetes UK has for the first time successfully demonstrated the potential of an ‘artificial pancreas’ in preventing night-time hypoglycaemia in adults with Type 1 diabetes.

Hypoglycaemia remains a major challenge, especially during the night, so it’s encouraging to see such promising results from our trial using commercially available devices.

Dr Roman Hovorka

Diabetes UK

Artificial pancreas: 1. Glucose levels monitored continuously 2. Required insulin dose calculated 3. Insulin does delivered automatically

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