Why I believe the Artificial Pancreas can't work

I know many people are hoping the AP may be a huge breakthrough (me I’m just praying for SmartInsulin) but the fact is Insulin itself is not consistent. We all know that from day to day we could start out at virtually the same starting point take our dosage based on what we eat and end up with totally different results. As an example one day I could take 3 units and it will lower my glucose 90 pnts and another day it may lower it 110 pnts. As some of us may know in the non-diabetic there is stored glucose in the liver that gets released automatically to keep levels from getting too low where as unfortunately for us that part of the system is also impared which makes me believe that even an artifical pancreas will never be able to keep the levels from dropping to low. Unless they plan on having part of the sensor be able to release glucagon to counteract the lows I just don’t see this system being able to work. I am just basing this on pure logic folks.

I believe the researchers are aware of this, and there has been talk about how to accomplish this. I would imagine the artifical pancreas could work very well overnight, you would still have to bolus and watch IOB for meals. And Minimed’s pump released in the U.K. would shut off for hours once your blood sugar hits 50. Cgms, for my niece, has not been accurate enough to dose for it or to trust it completely. Dexcom had sent us a new Receiver but now has identified the problem as being with the transmitter, and they will send us a new one of those. So I believe our Dexcom 7 Plus has never been operating at 75 percent, more like 50 percent. Even if cgms operated well 99 percent of the time, there is still that one percent. I don’t think the Artificial Pancrease, if and when released, will ever mean you can just forget about it and trust what is, essentially, a mechanical device. It will be an aide; you will still have to be extremely vigilant, just as you are now.

Jan,

My question is why would anyone (JDRF) continue to dump millions of dollars into something that will have flaws and based on what the cost of standard pumps are I can only imagine what the price of a close loop system will cost. You saw what happened with the gluco-watch didn’t you! I’m starting to feel like SmartInsulin may be our only savior. (Please god make it work) I’m a little nervous because the JDRF (which many people believe they don’t want to cure diabetes) is funding both projects and I see Smartinsulin is something that should their #1 priority right now. Whether it ends up being a flawless treatment no one knows but its by far the most promissing looking therapy on the horizon.

My hope is in smart insulin as well!!

I’d put money into smart insulin, if I had a JDRF vote.

AP appears to be fraught with problems, agree. I wonder if it’s the flashiness of AP technology that attracts dollars.