Artificial Pancreas Could Help Diabetics

Diabetes artificial pancreas tech could soon be made available to people with type 1 diabetes to efficiently manage their condition.

02:30 11 January 2023

More than 100,000 people in England and Wales with type 1 diabetes could soon be offered a new technology that uses a glucose sensor under the skin to help them better manage their condition. 

Health assessors said that the system, which has been designed to automatically calculate how much insulin is delivered via a pump, was the best way of controlling the medical condition, barring a cure. 

Prof Partha Kar, national specialty adviser for diabetes at NHS England, said: "This technology has been proven to give the best control for managing type 1 diabetes and should make things like amputations, blindness, and kidney problems possibly a thing of the past,"

"The quality of life this technology gives to those using it is huge," he added.

Currently, the technology costs around £6,000 a year. However, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says it wants to agree on a price for the NHS that "is fair for taxpayers." 

Hilary Nathan, policy director at JDRF, the type 1 diabetes charity which has funded research into the system for many years, described the system as "a game-changing treatment at the forefront of health technology and artificial intelligence." 

"It's the closest thing you can get to a working pancreas," she added.