
The $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes - omh
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-08/the-250-biohack-that-s-revolutionizing-life-with-diabetes
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rland
These systems are totally obtainable. It is only liability holding the
movement back (since an accidental dose of insulin can kill). Even that is
just slowing down the process. The largest difference in quality of life for
those with diabetes, imho, is still better quality insulin. Humalog/Novolog
are the fastest. For me personally, they begin work in about 30 mins and peak
after an hour, with a tapering tail of 1-2 hours. By contrast, natural insulin
works within a couple of minutes. For these devices, the largest tech
bottleneck has been the CGM, since the technology for delivery and control
logic is akin to a PID. Only 2 fronts remain to mechanically cure t1d: an
accurate, second-by-second CGM; and a faster insulin analog. Only 1 front
remains to have a mostly "hands off" but still clunky mechanical cure—the
C.G.M. From there, it is simply a matter of comfort and convenience.

The quality of life difference between managed diabetes and unmanaged diabetes
is astounding. Having an A1C higher than 8 or so is almost like going through
life constantly tipsy, without any of the fun. Also, as is typical with any
health condition, diet and lifestyle play an enormous role. For me, heavy
daily exercise and good eating has made diabetes management ridiculously easy.

Lastly, "move fast and break things" emphatically does not work with insulin
delivery devices. Overdoses of insulin are debilitating, can occur without the
patient's knowledge, and can lead to impairment (like car/equipment
accidents), unconsciousness, brain damage, or death after a short while.

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mindcrime
This is incredibly heart-warming to read, especially in light of all the
negativity circulating around the tech world lately. This, and things like
this, is what I want the tech sphere to enable for people. Technology that
allows people to live a better life... or for some people, allowing them to
live period.

Now I fully expect the top-rated comment on this story to quickly be a rant
about how insane it is to use a non-FDA approved, DIY, device to manage
something that is literally life or death...

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devoply
> Medtronic’s latest FDA-approved product can now do most of the things the
> Farnsworths’ system can—for $7,000

Considering the price is affordable for most people I can see why people might
object to instead relying on a $250 DIY unit.

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daveguy
And apparently it is $250 when the pump is donated. Medically approved pumps
are _expensive_. A lot of the safety control is in that pump and the protocol
used to control it. It probably has two way confirmations at every step.
Physical safety stops and controls. If you exclude the critical safety
component (the pump) from the cost then it will be $250. That pump, with the
safety controls and rigorous firmware development needed to pump insulin
safely, is probably $4k-5k of the cost of the $7000 commercial pump. Also
probably the reason there haven't been reports of people dying from their diy
closed loop insulin pumps.

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modells
Growing up, my dad had type 1 from agent orange (dioxin) exposure. Eventually
had an insulin pump but it wasn’t a closed feedback loop because of caloric,
time-of-day and finger-pricking measurements. The strips were expensive and
created biohazard litter. For the safety of others, I wish diabetics would use
old strip bottles to contain used ones instead of just binning them bare,
because they seem to magically leap out, get everywhere and multiply.

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zaroth
I’m not advocating litter, but the minuscule amount of dried blood left in the
tip of a test strip is simply not a safety concern. They can and should be
binned.

Proper sharps disposal is important, however. IMO all states should allow
simply tossing clipped needles, but some states require sharps containers even
for clipped syringes.

