22KIT
Medtronic USA
Over the pond, America is
Medtronic's biggest (and native)
market. As product availability
varies on market to market, there
are things moving ahead over there
that may (or may not) been seen in
the UK.
to even closer control with increased
time in range and decreased time in
hypo as well as a decreased risk of
long-term complications. It is also
possible to do remote monitoring,
which has been fantastic in the time
of the pandemic."
People can be reluctant to take
more insulin as that increases the
risk of hypo, and that might be
particularly true of people who do
physical work or who feel that their
diabetes is not something they want
to be seen in the workplace. I had
one patient on a 780G for just three
weeks who achieved 79% time in
range, which we both felt was a
huge success."
Gary Rapson is father to Max
who was diagnosed at the age of
18 months. Rapson says, "There
followed many years of not properly
sleeping. we went from multiple
daily injections to combined pump
and CGM; it was a big leap, but it
made sense. The MiniMed 780G has
changed our lives for the better."
*Not yet available in the UK.
It provides more
discretion in
its use, as the
customisable
alarms and alerts
can be set based
around the
individual and
can be set via the
phone app.
- Ali Dianaty
In 2019, Medtronic completed the
acquisition of Klue, a software
company that tracks people's eating
in real-time and analyzes it with
artificial intelligence (AI) to help
control diabetes. Medtronic plans to
incorporate Klue's technology into
its Personalized Closed Loop (PCL)
insulin pump system, designed to
automate insulin delivery in realtime, adapting to the user to simplify
diabetes management. Medtronic
also said it will use Klue's technology
to boost analytics and insights for its
continuous glucose monitor (CGM)
technology to help people using
multiple daily injections stay ahead of
high- and low-glucose events.
Klue tracks gestures using activity
trackers to automatically recognize
when, how quickly and how much
a person is eating. Combined with
its fine-motor AI software, the
company's system is designed to
detect meals and provide insights
into user eating behaviors. Because
food consumption affects insulin
requirements, the ability to automate
meal identification along with the
corresponding insulin delivery could
greatly simplify living with diabetes,
according to Medtronic.
At this point, Medtronic had also
recently acquired Nutrino Health; its
expertise in nutrition data science
will also fuel the development of
PCL. Both acquisitions strengthen
the company's capabilities in
automation and in the integration of
artificial intelligence into diabetes
management systems.
At the time, Alejandro Galindo,
president of Medtronic's Advanced
Insulin Management division, said
in a news release, "Bringing Klue
and their unique meal-detection
capabilities into our organization
will accelerate our progress to
help people with diabetes live with
greater freedom and better health.
Based on our learnings from a firstgeneration
hybrid closed loop system
around the importance of simplifying
diabetes management, we believe
the Personalized Closed Loop system
will be transformational for diabetes
management, and the integration of
the Klue technology helps clears the
path to a true hands-free closed loop
system."
It's hoped that the inclusion of
Nutrino could eliminate the need
to carb count while also providing
insights and predictive diagnostics
unique to the individual user.
A mightier pen
In November 2020, Medtronic
announced the launch of a CGMintegrated
smart insulin pen -
called InPen - for multiple daily
injections. This came a few months
after Medtronic acquired the InPen