This is exciting! It looks like a tremendous endorsement of this grass-roots, open-source, labor of love by people with diabetes, young parents devastated by the threat diabetes represents to their young children, and enthusiasts around the world;
From Tidepool:
Here are the headlines:
Tidepool has kicked off a project to officially support Loop, the currently do-it-yourself (DIY), open source automated insulin delivery app for iPhone. Our goal is to deliver an officially supported, FDA-regulated product, broadly available via the iOS App Store. For the sake of clarity, we will call this effort “Tidepool Loop” until we announce an official name.
Tidepool has hired two key Loop contributors, Katie DiSimone, writer of LoopDocs, and Pete Schwamb, creator of the RileyLink. Check out this video from Loop user and enthusiast, Erik Douds.
Thanks Terry, this is great. It’s nice to see a non profit getting involved. So many people struggle paying their bills as it is and medical costs can cause an even bigger burden. I personally struggled with this before deciding to purchase my first insulin pump. It was such a financial burden and I was a single mom at the time. Not until I started getting retinopathy did I realize how much a pump could save me in medical costs in the future. The crazy thing is that after using the pump and my Dexcom my Retinopathy disappeared.
Hopefully something like this will get all of the funding/donations that they need to proceed. I wish insurance companies would figure out that giving better coverage for advanced systems like the closed loop would benefit the patient and them in the long run.
Good to see time in range being used in studies like this. Hybrid closed-loop therapy in general does produce better numbers compared to the combined therapy of a CGM and a pump with the human in the decision loop. A fully implemented closed loop without any meal announcement will be another improvement BG-wise as well as improving quality of life.
We are truly on the cusp of some rapid technical treatments in insulin-treated diabetes.