I don't blame the young man. If I find bliss they woill never get t back.
I presume the reason Medtronic locks their data is because it's in a machine that can kill you. I'm always intrigued by Dexcom but haven't pulled the trigger yet since I'm doing very well with my Medtronic. I'm not sure that Dexcom is necessarily more "ethical" for doing so. I don't have any desire to do anything else with my data besides what I get out of the Medtronic reports. Apps to look at numbers are one thing but an insulin pump is something else.
The greatest barrier to the commercial success of the bionic pancreas is going to be cost. Even if the device itself was free, the cost of the glucagon (at today's prices) would be prohibitive for most people and insurance companies are unlikely to fully cover the cost. In emergency kit form, Glucagon currently costs around $100 per kit for a single dose/shot. Each kit/shot only contains a single mg of Glucagon (normally diluted with 49mg of lactose).
The cost of glucagon in the bionic pancreas reportedly runs about $160 per day. That's a pretty stiff obstacle for achieving bliss and the freedom from worrying about hypos. Of course, if the device does receive FDA approval and I think it most likely will (eventually), the economies of scale will result in glucagon cost reductions but it is difficult to predict to what extent that will occur since Big Pharma is profit-driven.
Glucagon is a peptide hormone, just like insulin. Making it in E. coli using recombinant DNA technology is a doddle, strictly 1990's technology. Give me a lab, $50,000 in funding, and I could make it for you at least in milligram quantities (and admittedly not in pharmacologically pure form) in 12 months.
As I understand it, the biggest current problem with using it in the AP trials is that it is much less stable than insulin, so you cannot keep it in a reservoir for longer than 24 hours. I am sure that given the demand, the stabilization problem can be addressed. Also, the current price reflects the relatively low demand. Ramp up the volume to the levels you might expect with AP technology in general use and the price will fall.
I think that's true, but math is free. 'Bionic pancreas' is not the only one and it might not be the best one or the least expensive. Dexcom opened a door where we could reap most of the benefit for free. I don't think its glucagon that sets us free, its knowledge and an ability to predict and anticipate 25 min into the future. I think its really questionable if glucagon is the best solution, if all you need is to decrease basal rates, like our super good pumpers do. Dexcom isn't warpped in proprietary software and they don't get hacked. I have a sneaking suspicion that Medtronic pumps were getting hacked because people were angry. Dexcom could have wrapped their numbers up tight, but they didn't. They left doors open for us intentionally. It was the right thing to do and not the norm.
See min 50...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrtPn6GKMlU. See where he does predictions on chaotic data at min 50. This is a big, incredible advancement. People have been trying to do this for decades, unsuccessfully.
I’d probably run away too!
I’m excited about the “BioArtificial Pancreas”. It’s been implanted in one person since October. I’d love to hear any updates.
http://viacyte.com/wp-content/uploads/MedTech-Strategist-13Nov2014-MThompson-for-dist.pdf
Really exciting times!
You might enjoy reading up on Dana Lewis & #DIYPS (Do-It-Yourself Pancreas System).
Her & her fiancée came up with a system that closed the loop for basal dosing. She has been running it since December with great success.
+1. This link contains worthwhile reading.
Can't wait to read this when I get home. I just glanced at it and am very excited!
Do they publish the code or the model they use? Is the hash-tag-thing twitter? It would be nice to not have to write it myself. I get into trouble using code when I don't understand how it works. It can be hard to translate to my, personal, physiology.
I do not think they have released the code on the internet, I believe out of safety concerns.
They have created a website to recruit help in developing an Artificial Pancreas System (APS) that can be released.
If you are interested, http://openaps.org has more info.
Yea, I looked at that, LizBa. There are a bunch of people trying to do this, its exciting! I was surprised how few people put the code out there, but I think your right, its about limiting liability. I'm still hopeful there might be some code releases from outside the US. Americans are being quite cautious, but they are pretty good about releasing the models. You have to write the code, yourself, but they give you most everything you need to do that. I'm somewhat optimistic, still, that someone will hand over the code if I have a 'diabetic dog,' that requires predictive BG models, maybe.