An iPhone in place of the pancreas
Among the many ways in which a smartphone can be useful, there is now also this: stand in for a healthy pancreas for people with diabetes. The experiment, conducted on a sample of people with type 1 diabetes mellitus, gave good results, thanks to the use of a iPhone 4S, modified to become a portable artificial pancreas.
It is the pancreas, in fact, the gland responsible, in a healthy body, for producing insulin and glucagon, the two hormones that regulate the level of sugar in the blood. About a third of type 1 diabetes sufferers already use insulin pumps – or pumps – to simulate the natural release of the hormone into the blood. These pumps, however, have two serious shortcomings: they are unable to adjust insulin delivery as the patient's needs change, and they do not dispense glucagon. The new device, however, described in «The New England Journal of Medicine», does both. The system, refined through years of research, consists of an iPhone 4S, combined with a glucose level meter, two insulin pumps and two tanks, one for insulin and one for glucagon.
A sensor implanted under the skin in the patient's abdomen constantly measures glucose in the intracellular fluids, the level of which closely approximates the rate in the blood; the sensor then sends the glucose reading to your smartphone, which has software that calculates the required doses of insulin and glucagon every five minutes. The drug is then pumped through small tubes to two collection points under the skin which are also located in the abdomen. The iPhone also boasts an application, thanks to which the patient can enter a series of information immediately before consuming a meal, indicating, for example, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner, and whether the carbohydrate content is defined as notable, poor, or normal. The device is thus able to calculate in advance and schedule the release of the appropriate dosage.
