 the fda approval and clinical testing of the artificial pancreas by dr michael wood associate clinical professor of pediatrics and clinical director of the pediatric diabetes program university of michigan hello everyone i bring you great news from the world of diabetes care in late september the fda gave approval to a new device from medtronic called the 670g this device consists of a smart insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor cgm which sends electronic signals to the pump about the current glucose level in the body the pump then takes this information and decides how much insulin to give on a minutetominute basis this device which should be commercially available within a year is the first of many devices that will hopefully come to the market in the next several years in the artificial pancreas pathway the research on this system was reported by dr richard bergenstal of the international diabetes center in minneapolis at the american diabetes association meeting this june the study found here included 124 people 14 years of age and above with type1 diabetes participants using the device for three months unsupervised at home demonstrated that this system is both safe and effective in controlling blood sugars the results were superb the system was activated to control the glucose 872 percent of the time and benefits were seen over the three months in regards to percent of time spent in target range percent of time spent with hypoglycemia and glucose variability in addition the average hemoglobin a1c decreased from 74 to 69 percent there were no episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis severe hypoglycemia or serious devicerelated adverse events 80 percent of the subjects decided to use the device for an extended period of time after the study was completed at the university of michigan we are testing this device in a research study in children ages 713 after the study is complete i will give everyone an update if you are interested in learning more or participating in the clinical trial    please review the information found  here  although this tool is a tremendous step forward some issues remain with this device users need to enter their carbohydrates into the pump when they eat and also need to poke their fingers to calibrate the sensor i suspect as more rapid insulins become available and sensors become more accurate eventually not requiring finger pokes that the eventual dream of an artificial pancreas will be realized over the next several years and the burden of diabetes care for people with type1 diabetes will be lessened dramatically  