Torso Implants for Diabetes Patients?

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The days of pricking your finger every meal may just be over for the 23.6 million diabetics living in America: scientists have produced a non-invasive blood glucose monitor that is to be implanted into the patient’s torso.

The sealed monitor has two sensors, one for oxygen and the other for the reaction of oxygen and glucose. Measurements are wirelessly transmitted from an internal antenna. If blood sugar levels turn dangerous, patients can be notified via mobile phones and (potentially) even receive a dose of insulin directly from the monitor.

The device has been successfully tested on pigs over a 10-month period. Why pigs? The correlation between pigs’ insulin and that of humans has always existed, with pig insulin being used by diabetics up until the 1980s.

Professor David Gough, from UC San Diego, tells WHO? ‘You can run the device for a year or more with it constantly working and recording glucose.’ Assuming the rest of the tests on humans run a successful course, Gough says these devices could be “purchased under prescription from a physician.” (via the Daily Mail)

– Zander Sharp