Artificial pancreas helping people with diabetes – FOX13 Memphis

by: Darrell Greene Updated: May 17, 2017 - 10:40 PM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Diabetes is attacking younger Americans more often than ever before.

According to new research released by the New England Journal of Medicine, cases of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes rose dramatically between 2002 and 2012.

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Those new diagnoses crossed all racial boundaries in young people through age 20.

While a cure is still distant on the horizon according to researchers, new treatments are helping diabetics live longer and better lives.

Emily Fonville is your average 15-year-old learning to drive, playing high school sports, and of course dressing up for the prom.

What you can't see in her pictures, is her daily fight against type 1 diabetes.

"It's like the hidden disease," Emily said.

But that fight is becoming more and more winnable.

Just three weeks ago, Emily became the first person in the Mid-South and one of the first in the nation to begin wearing the artificial pancreas.

It's true name, Medtronic is the hybrid closed loop system.

It's comprised of an insulin pump which attaches to the patient's skin, and a sensor which monitors in real time the patient's blood sugar.

The sensor sends those readings to the pump and when the patient's blood sugar is high, the pump gives the patient a precisely measured dose of insulin.

If the patient's blood sugar is too low, it has the ability to suspend delivery of insulin automatically.

"It is a game changer," Emily exclaimed when asked about the new tool.

Dr. Kashif Latif is Emily's doctor. He's one of the leading endocrinologists in the nation.

"There's a lot of technology going on, but this breakthrough has been the best thing ever for people with type 1 diabetes," said Latif who operates the first insulin pump center in nation out of his practice in Bartlett.

And while he admits this is not a cure, he said it's the next best thing to come along to date.

"It kind of matches what our body or our pancreas does for us. It's a more physiologic delivery of insulin for high glucose or low glucose," said Latif.

That means a lot less worry about diabetes for Emily.

"I think it is life changing. Being on this pump I feel like a normal person. I don't have to pull out a shot and give it in the middle of a restaurant.

I can just look down, press a button, and it's done."

FOX13 spoke to representatives of Medtronic who said the company was somewhat taken off guard.

They applied to the FDA for approval of the system in 2015, understanding that the approval process can take years.

But the human trials of the system went so well, the hybrid closed loop system was approved late last year.

Medtronic is making the systems as quickly as they can to fill the need.

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Artificial pancreas helping people with diabetes - FOX13 Memphis