Bionic pancreas helped manage blood sugar in type 1 diabetics
People with type 1 diabetes who used a "bionic" pancreas were
better able to control their blood sugar levels than those who
monitored their levels manually, a small new study shows.  The
artificial systems aren't organs and they aren't transplanted
inside the body, says Steven Russell, assistant professor of
medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the
study published Sunday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Instead, the experimental system involves three devices that are
worn or carried outside the body: two pager-sized hormone pumps,
connected to the body with thin tubes inserted under the skin,
and a small "brick," combining an iPhone and continuous glucose
monitor, to coordinate when each hormone should be delivered,
says co-author Edward Damiano of the Boston University
Department of Biomedical Engineering.  One pump delivers insulin
— a hormone that lowers blood sugar — while the other delivers
glucagon, a hormone