Putting Diabetes on Autopilot
From: Scientific American - 09/30/2011
By: Elizabeth Svoboda

New devices may spare patients from monitoring their blood glucose 

For millions of diabetes sufferers, life is a constant battle to keep their
blood sugar balanced, which typically means they have to test their glucose
levels and take insulin throughout the day. A new generation of “artificial
pancreas” devices may make tedious diabetes micromanagement obsolete. 

Stuart Weinzimer, an endocrinologist at Yale University, has devised an
artificial pancreas that combines two existing technologies: a continuous
glucose monitor, which uses an under-the-skin sensor to measure blood glucose
levels every few minutes, and an insulin pump, which dispenses insulin
through a tube that is also implanted under the skin. The glucose sensor
sends its data wirelessly to a pocket computer a little bigger than an iPhone
that is loaded with software developed by Minneapolis-based Medtronic. The
program scans the incoming data from the glucose monitor and directs the pump
to dispense the correct amount of insulin. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=putting-diabetes-on-autopilot

Link:
Stuart Weinzimer
http://medicine.yale.edu/pediatrics/endocrinology/people/stuart_weinzimer.profile