18KIT
At the time, Hussain was
celebrating his own 32-year
'diaversary' with an article on DIY
AID in the respected publication
Nature. About that he added,
"Lovely to see this on my 32 year
diaversary and perhaps the closest
I will ever get to seeing my name
in Nature! Thank you to Nature
Portfolio and Liam Drew covering
this really interesting piece on
open-source diabetes technologies
and including our work in this.
And a big thank you to the Type 1
diabetes community."
Hussain, an endocrinologist at
King's College London. He admits
that initially he was sceptic about
the DIY AID community but when
he started to engage with the
people involved in it, in about
2016, he was 'surprised' at how
well-engineered the solutions
were in terms of the safety and
understanding. In 2022, Hussain
co-authored an international
consensus statement - signed by
more than 40 medical and legal
experts and backed by 9 diabetes
charities - calling for health-care
professionals to support those
wanting to use open-source AID.
www.nature.com
Further reading
Other good coverage of the NICE
HCL announcement can be found
here:
Diabetes UK
NHS England
The Guardian
Examples of existing
commercial closed
loop systems (as
opposed to DIY).
Strategic partners
Hybrid Closed Loop systems using
FreeStyle Libre, reaction from Abbott.
On 7 November 2023 NICE recommended the use of an "artificial
pancreas" for diabetes management, meaning this life changing device is now
recommended for use in certain people with Type 1 diabetes via the NHS,
which potentially in time could change up to 100,000 people's lives.
Responding to NICE's announcement and commenting on the benefits of
hybrid closed loop systems, Neil Harris, General Manager of Abbott's diabetes
care business in the UK and Ireland, said: "It's brilliant to hear that NICE has
recommended the use of Hybrid Closed Loop systems to support many more
people with Type 1 diabetes to manage their condition, and we're incredibly
proud to be a facilitator within this.
"Our mission has always been to provide affordable and accessible
technologies to as many people in the UK as possible. By working with
strategic partners, we can create more options and help simplify the
management of diabetes for as many people as possible.
"We're working with a number of leading providers of automated insulin
delivery systems to provide connected technologies across our FreeStyle
Libre portfolio, through partnerships with Ypsomed and CamDiab and
Insulet's Omnipod 5 System, to provide users with sensors that have the
longest wear time on the market."
Early adopter
Jody Foster (pictured with her son) is a Diabetes Specialist Nurse from
Manchester who has been living with Type 1 diabetes since she was
diagnosed at the age of 21. Having spent many years struggling to manage
her condition, Foster was one of the first people to use the Abbott, Ypsomed
and CamDiab's Hybrid Closed Loop system and says she would "never give it
back" now.
Foster is now using the first hybrid closed loop system to work with
Abbott's FreeStyle Libre 3 sensor - the first continuous glucose monitor
(CGM) with readings every minute - along with Ypsomed's mylife YpsoPump
and CamDiab's CamAPS FX mobile app.
She says, "Since I moved over to hybrid closed loop systems, I've seen a
massive reduction in the number of hypoglycaemia episodes I have - I can't
remember the last time I've had to treat one. Before this, I'd be treating them
daily with one or two episodes a day, but now it's a rare event."
Her Time in Range (TIR) has also improved as a result of being on closed
loop, and, with this new system, she is now spending around 90% of her time
in range, compared to the recommendation of 70%. TIR is the percentage of
time that a person spends with their blood glucose levels in a target range.
For the full NICE guidelines on HCL systems, CLICK HERE.