XPost: sci.misc
A DIY 'bionic pancreas' is changing diabetes care -- what's next?
A community of people with type 1 diabetes got a self-built device
approved. What can they offer that big companies can't?
Ten years ago, a tech-savvy group of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D)
decided to pursue a DIY approach to their own treatment. They knew
that a fairly straightforward piece of software could make their lives
much easier, but no companies were developing it quickly enough.
What this software promised was freedom from having to constantly
measure and control their blood-glucose levels. In people without T1D,
when glucose levels rise, cells in the pancreas release insulin, a
hormone that helps tissues to absorb that glucose. In T1D, these cells
are killed by the immune system, leaving people with the condition to
manage their blood sugar by taking insulin.
"It is almost inhumane," says Shane O'Donnell, a medical sociologist
at University College Dublin, who, like everyone quoted in this
article, lives with T1D. "You're constantly having to think about
diabetes in order to survive."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02648-9
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)