14 KIT
Turning the tide
Tidepool Loop has gained FDA approval in the USA.
So why does that matter? By Sue Marshall.
T
idepool Loop was built on
the extraordinary foundation
of the do-it-yourself
diabetes community's
original Loop app. Tidepool Loop was
a first-of-its-kind project, the goal
being to take it through the American
Food and Drugs Administration
(FDA) and thus to market to the
wider public. Its cutting edge, userled
innovations came from the
#WeAreNotWaiting community of
innovators with the support of bestin-class medical
device partners.
These best-in-class medical device
partners - being Medtronic and
Dexcom - 'talk' to each other via the
Tidepool Loop algorithm.
The group has explained that
Tidepool is an open-source, notfor-profit
company focused on
'liberating data' from diabetes
devices and providing great, free
software to people with diabetes
and their care teams.
The company's community
manager, Christopher Snider has
Type 1 diabetes, as does his wife - in
fact most of the team have diabetes.
The company's founder, Howard
Look, has a daughter with T1D, so
there are plenty of motivated and
focussed people on board. The
company states that its mission is to
make diabetes data more accessible,
actionable and meaningful for
people with diabetes, as well as their
care teams and researchers.
Tidepool Loop was initially
supported by grants from JDRF
and The Leona M. and Harry B.
Helmsley Charitable Trust, and
further supported by partnerships
with device makers Dexcom, Insulet
(Omnipod) and Medtronic as well as
donations from a diverse community
of individual funders impacted by
their experience with diabetes.
Founded in 2013, Tidepool now
hosts a suite of free software tools
for people with diabetes and the
clinics that serve them, including
Tidepool Web, Tidepool Uploader,
Tidepool Mobile, and now the newly
cleared Tidepool Loop app itself.
This month (January 2023),
Howard Loop declared, "We did it!
We are thrilled to announce the FDA
clearance of Tidepool Loop, the first
ever community led innovation in the
diabetes space to be FDA cleared!"
Tidal Zone
In September 2014, JDRF USA, the
leading research and advocacy
organization funding tTpe 1 diabetes
(T1D) research, and Tidepool, a
Silicon Valley-based non-profit
organization committed to reducing
the burden of T1D, announced a
partnership supported by JDRF
funding for data access technology
for people with T1D who use insulin
pumps and continuous glucose
monitors (CGMs) through a 'device
agnostic' cloud platform (in other
words, not limited to just one device,
there's a choice of devices).
Derek Rapp, then president and
CEO of JDRF. "We are committed
to ensuring that the data software
available is safe, convenient and
offers reliable access. With this
partnership, JDRF will provide
funding to further Tidepool's diabetes
technology through development of
a tool called the 'Universal Device
Uploader'. The new tool will help to
make it easier to access and integrate
data from various T1D devices.