Thousands more people with type 1 diabetes to get artificial pancreas in NHS roll out

Amity Island

Amity Island

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I think for all T1D sufferers in England this is huge news.I do hope I'll be able to have one fitted.
 
Should also be provided to any one who has had a Total Pancreatectomy.
 
stephenS50 said:
I think for all T1D sufferers in England this is huge news.I do hope I'll be able to have one fitted.
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Hi I hope you do I’ve waited a while. Diabetic since 1965/66. Just had Medtronic fitted 1 st step. Been using Omnipod and Libre approx 8 years but needed a lot of information throughout the day . Next week sensor training/ attachment.
 
I read the DUK version of of the same update -Here

It is very exciting. Hopefully the roll out is speedy and well implemented.
 
Great news that access to tech is improving (though I completely agree with you @martindt1606 - there are some glaring gaps in guidance)

Personally I wish journalists (and device manufacturers!) would stop continually calling gradual incremental improvements to sensor augmented pumps “the artificial pancreas”, until it’s actually, um… an artificial pancreas - not just a slightly-better-version-of-a-manual-insulin-pump
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Great news that access to tech is improving (though I completely agree with you @martindt1606 - there are some glaring gaps in guidance)

Personally I wish journalists (and device manufacturers!) would stop continually calling gradual incremental improvements to sensor augmented pumps “the artificial pancreas”, until it’s actually, um… an artificial pancreas - not just a slightly-better-version-of-a-manual-insulin-pump
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Totally agree - I've always thought an artificial pancreas should have both insulin and glucose so that it can limit transition to hypo as well as restricting the highs. However given the ongoing issues with PERT manufacture i think the holy grail would be to also include a non pig based PERT all in one pump or implant.....
 
martindt1606 said:
Totally agree - I've always thought an artificial pancreas should have both insulin and glucose so that it can limit transition to hypo as well as restricting the highs. However given the ongoing issues with PERT manufacture i think the holy grail would be to also include a non pig based PERT all in one pump or implant.....
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Plus have a delivery mechanism (or insulin type) that meant you had no need of telling it you were eating… or might exercise within the next 2 hours…

Which I distinctly remember NOT having to tell my pancreas for the first 21 years of my life.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Plus have a delivery mechanism (or insulin type) that meant you had no need of telling it you were eating… or might exercise within the next 2 hours…

Which I distinctly remember NOT having to tell my pancreas for the first 21 years of my life.
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Hi Mike,

Do you know what the reason(s) are for not including the glucagon as part of a pump device?

Besides treating a hypo, could it also be used prior to exercise instead of eating carbs or temp stopping insulin?
 
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A not insignificant number of people can’t tolerate glucagon @Amity Island I’m one of them. It causes severe vomiting. I definitely wouldn’t want it in a pump!

I also don’t think glucagon could be used as you suggest. It’s an emergency med (because it’s easier to administer to the unconscious than IV glucose). For exercise, you’d just eat some glucose.
 
Amity Island said:
Do you know what the reason(s) are for not including the glucagon as part of a pump device?
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I think there were issues with keeping glucagon in a suitable form stably enough for that to be practical. I think that's been resolved but there's still the obvious problem that you'd need a pump for it so it's additional complexity/cost. I think there are (or have been) experimental systems which have been trialled.
 
Amity Island said:
Hi Mike,

Do you know what the reason(s) are for not including the glucagon as part of a pump device?

Besides treating a hypo, could it also be used prior to exercise instead of eating carbs or temp stopping insulin?
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Thanks Inka.

Could I ask also, talking of this wider distribution of pumps, do you know if any people that have tried a pump but preferred MDI? I'm MDI and like the independent control.
 
Yes, they have @Amity Island . I googled that once and found a number of people who returned to MDI from a pump. One used a pump during the week and MDI at the weekend; another found only using fast-acting insulin didn’t suit their exercise regime; others just wanted the simplicity of MDI.

Every new bit of tech is a possible option not a necessity. It’s what suits the individual. I turned down a loop two years ago, for example. Others have turned down pumps. Some people seem to think that ‘newer automatically equals better’, but that’s not true. There’s nothing wrong with using MDI, mixed insulin, older insulins, etc etc if it’s what suits the person best.
 
Amity Island said:
Do you know what the reason(s) are for not including the glucagon as part of a pump device?
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The reason I’d heard was along the lines of @Bruce Stephens - that it isn’t easy to keep glucagon stable in solution.

There were some “dual hormone pump” trials experiments about a decade ago, but I’ve not heard much more in recent years.

Sorry to hear glucagon is so problematic for you @Inka - do you think it’s to do with the way the glucagon is isolated/formulated/preservatives? I got the impression that glucagon was naturally produced in healthy pancreases as a means of balancing lowering glucose by stimulating gluconeogenesis?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Personally I wish journalists (and device manufacturers!) would stop continually calling gradual incremental improvements to sensor augmented pumps “the artificial pancreas”, until it’s actually, um… an artificial pancreas - not just a slightly-better-version-of-a-manual-insulin-pump
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One of my particular bugbears. Two years in I love my HCL but anyone getting one of these devices and misled by ‘artificial pancreas’ term thinking it makes diabetes go away is in for a disappointing experience.
 
Scrap that I initially thought like an operation to swap thr current pancreas for a new one. Silly me...
 
Inka said:
I don’t know @everydayupsanddowns It could be the artificialness or it could be the quantity maybe. I don’t know but it wasn’t pleasant.
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I don’t blame you for being cautious about it!

Perhaps it's like allergies to insulins. We were never allergic to our own, but the engineered versions can have components or additives that give rise to reactions?
 
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