All-star team collaborates on closed loop system

By Lisa Foster-McNulty, MSN, RN, CDE

Guess who is working together to integrate their respective technologies into the International Diabetes Closed Loop (IDCL) trial, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and slated to begin before year’s end…keep reading to learn more!

Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. makes the only touchscreen insulin pump available on the US market. Dexcom, Inc. is a leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). And TypeZero Technologies, LLC is a digital health and personalized medicine company with a goal of revolutionizing the management and treatment of diabetes. They are a leader in clinically tested artificial pancreas solutions. A Tandem insulin pump and a Dexcom G5 sensor will combine with a smartphone running the inControl closed loop algorithm from TypeZero. The system will be able to predict high and low blood glucose (BG) levels and adjust insulin delivery accordingly, yet still allow the user to bolus for meals. Beyond adjusting basal insulin, TypeZero’s inControl system automates correction boluses. The companies expect that they will add an improved system– Dexcom G6 sensor integrated with the t:slim X2 pump, incorporating inControl’s algorithms directly into the pump’s touchscreen interface–to the IDCL trial in 2017.

The IDCL trial will investigate a closed-loop, control-to-range system. Seven US institutions and three in Europe led by the University of Virginia will take part in the study. A successful automated insulin delivery system needs to utilize accurate CGM data, be easy to use, and operate from a trusted algorithm. The key players are looking forward to bringing these benefits to patients in the IDCL trial and eventually delivering a sophisticated automated insulin delivery system to a world-wide patient audience. The researchers anticipate enrolling 240 adults with type 1 diabetes in the trial. TypeZero has a series of algorithms that they have crafted from initial research done at the University of Virginia. Thus far this technology has been studied in over 28 clinical trials with more than 475 participants.

We look forward to hearing about the results of the IDCL trial. It’s exciting to hear about the progress that is being made towards having a commercially available artificial pancreas system on the market!