"What Is The Artificial Pancreas?" - Vanessa Caceres
If you use insulin and find it challenging to get dosing just right – and let’s face it, that can be hard – then you may want to know about new technology underway called the artificial pancreas system. Currently, some patients may use insulin pumps to aid with their insulin delivery. The artificial pancreas takes some of the work out of insulin pump use. With the insulin pump, “patients still need to harness the data from continuous glucose monitors, their finger sticks and their knowledge of diabetes to adjust, as needed, insulin dosing as delivered by the pump,” said David W. Lam, MD, assistant professor of medicine, endocrinology, diabetes, and bone disease at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “The artificial pancreas system, to a certain extent, automates the insulin delivered according to its input and decreases the amount of patient-directed or initiated modification of insulin delivery.” Future artificial pancreas systems may enable patients to input more information about activity or food for even more refined insulin dosing.
- David W. Lam, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes, Bone Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai