Background & Purpose

In 2006, JDRF launched its Artificial Pancreas Project to accelerate the development of commercially available closed-loop systems.

Since then, significant progress has been made in developing and testing algorithmic approaches to automate insulin delivery, and clinical studies have progressed to the outpatient pilot setting. The NIH are currently funding large efficacy studies in this area and at least one manufacturer has announced their intent to launch a first generation AP system in 2017.

However, a major factor when considering Artificial Pancreas therapy is that the system becomes a major part of the life of a person with Type 1 diabetes. The AP system ‘hardware’ is either in direct contact or very close proximity to the body, which may be barriers to the subsequent widescale adoption of AP systems. This factor is especially compounded in children, where skin real estate is at a premium. JDRF wishes to red uce AP system burden for people with diabetes, and reducing on-body burden is a clear area of potential improvement and enhanced user
convenience.

In addition, until recently user centric design has not necessarily been top priority when developing AP systems, since demonstrating safety and efficacy have been paramount. However, JDRF now feels that AP system have been demonstrated sufficiently safe and effective that user consideration should be addressed in next generation AP systems, such as minimizing number of steps to fill, replace, and install AP systems components, such as one handedinstallation/maintenance of infusion sets, pumps, reservoirs, CGM sensors; and integrating variousAP system components to reduce burden of managing disparate components at asynchronous intervals etc.

JDRF is committed to accelerating the development of improved artificial pancreas systems, and therefore this call is to facilitate the development of user centric, miniature, next generation AP systems that reduce on-body burden and provide increased ease of use.