Artificial Pancreas Remains Promising
In the past, I have already talked about the artificial pancreas that researchers have developed for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
With the artificial pancreas technology, diabetics become free from the need to constantly monitor blood sugar levels and consequently inject insulin when the time is right. With the artificial pancreas, a computer is doing all that for you — constantly adjusting glucose and insulin levels as needed.
According to Aaron Kowalski, research director of the JDRF's Artificial Pancreas Project:
"The promise in the near term of these technologies is not only to help us reduce significantly the risk of long-term diabetic complications, but also to reduce the risk of having a catastrophic hypoglycemic event, and further help people with diabetes live easier. This will help keep people healthy while we drive toward a biological approach, which will take longer."
While biological treatment of diabetes is being sought by researchers, the artificial pancreas technology serves as a stopgap.