More than 371 million over the world are affected by diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease that is caused because of improper functioning of the pancreas that is responsible for the creation of insulin hormone. Insulin is required for enabling the glucose in our blood to make its way into our cells and be used for energy. Diabetes is the name given to the condition when your body produces less or no insulin. There are two types; Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1 is when the body does not produce insulin and Type 2 is when the body doesn’t respond well to the insulin. We won’t be going into much detail about what diabetes is and how it affects our bodies. Rather, we are going to be focusing on techniques and methods that are aimed at treating diabetes. Scientists are focusing on hybrid devices that can monitor glucose and also administer insulin based on glucose levels. This is called an automated ‘closed loop’ system, and pairing with CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) gadgets and insulin pumps is considered to be the next generation of diabetes management.
What follows is a list of some of the promising technologies that we will be witnessing this year for diagnosing and managing diabetes in a better manner.
Smart Insulin Pumps
Smart insulin pumps perform all of the necessary work to help with determining the insulin dosage. The level of smartness is enhancing at a fast pace as the technology progresses. As of now, there are insulin pumps that import data on different levels for avoiding insulin overdose. The X2 insulin pump is one such gadget. It has been created by Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. and is aimed at administering the drug into the patient. The US FDA has classified it into a new category that has been termed as Alternate Controller Enabled Infusion Pumps (ACE Pumps)
New Glucagon Formulations
Glucagon is the name of the treatment for severe hypoglycemia or extremely low blood sugar. Two new versions of this treatment have been introduced that are known to help diabetes patients. Eli Lilly created the ‘puff-up-your-nose’ version that was aimed at speedy boosting of blood sugar. It is basically dry nasal powder glucagon that was reviewed in the US and Europe and found to be effective.
The second version is a glucagon emergency pen that was developed by Xeris Pharmaceuticals. The pen houses stable liquid glucagon that is ready for administering and doesn’t require any preparation.
Tubeless Insulin Pumps
Omnipod was designed to take over the conventional insulin delivery systems. It is a waterproof insulin pump that was approved back in 2018. The device features Bluetooth functionalities and comes with a touchscreen along with a personal diabetes manager (PDM). It can be positioned at spots where insulin shots are generally taken and can be worn for up to 72 hours. It requires no tubing and is connected to the PDM wirelessly.
Advanced Diabetes Management Systems
Diabetes management systems are critical when it comes to managing this chronic disease of diabetes. Such devices are improving rapidly as far as accuracy and precision go thanks to the IoT and its development. Medtronic is the world’ biggest medical device company and has assigned significant resources aimed in this direction. It will be showing great improvements in the Minimed 670G hybrid closed loop. It is also working on the Guardian Connect CGM System. The new system will consist of a wearable sensor and two mobile that apps that will offer thorough diabetes management on insulin injections.
Smart Insulin Pens
The first insulin pen was introduced back in 1985. However, the latest and smarter insulin pen is yet another technological leap that assists with diabetes. It helps by recording the insulin doses autonomously. One such gadget is InPen from Companion Medical that features a smartphone app and a bolus advisor working via Bluetooth technology and is now readily available to the US consumer market. There are other similar devices such as Gocap and Esysta that will be making their way into the market this year.
