What is an artificial pancreas?
An artificial pancreas combines a glucose monitor with an insulin pump. In this video, Griffin Rodgers, MD, director of diabetes, digestive and kidney disease at the National Institutes of Health, explains how this helps those with type 2 diabetes.
Transcript
The artificial pancreas ties these two technologies together with a computer that can be in the form of a smartphone, for example.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The other thing that's coming into effect based upon research is the ability to have an artificial pancreas.
So the pancreas, as we talked about, is destroyed in this autoimmune process. The pancreas normally can sense what the blood sugar levels are
and appropriately release sufficient quantities of insulin to counteract those highs.
And conversely, low-- shut off insulin production when the values are too low.
With the advent of technology now, we can use a continuous glucose monitors
and one can measure this continuously. And at the same time, we have these insulin pumps and insulin
can be infused. And the artificial pancreas ties these two technologies together with a computer that can
be in the form of a smartphone, for example. We find that with better control,
it's quite likely that some of the other complications, the long-term complications, will also be abated.
type 2 diabetes
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