CamAPS FX is an application and algorithm that turns a conventional insulin pump into an artificial pancreas
The technology for monitoring insulin levels in children from one to seven years old, developed by scientists in Cambridge, turned out to be more effective than existing mechanisms. The application not only monitors the insulin level of a diabetic child in real time, but also learns to predict it over time.
CamAPS FX Technology developed by Professor Roman Govorka at the Wellcome Institute (part of the University of Cambridge). The developers believe that it will change the lives of parents with young children with type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes in a young child is a very difficult case, because the level of insulin in the blood of children changes rapidly, and they themselves react differently to injections and sensor signals.
Most often, a special sensor is sewn into the child’s body, a glucometer, sometimes connected to an insulin pump. The level of the hormone has to be monitored by the sensor.
The same meter with pump, but connected to the CamAPS FX app, is fully automated. It monitors insulin levels and activates the pump if the hormone levels fall too low. However, in addition to this, the algorithm adapts to each individual child and over time begins to predict jumps and drops in insulin during the day.
Keeping track of blood sugar levels in young children is often very difficult.
In addition, the algorithm regulates the amount of insulin released into the body, which allows developers to call it a full-fledged “artificial pancreas.”
Thus, parents of a diabetic child with CamAPS FX need not, for example, be afraid of nocturnal episodes of hypoglycemia. The algorithm will notice a drop in insulin levels or a rise in sugar, turn on the pump and adjust the amount of hormone supplied.
The effectiveness of the algorithm has been proven in a trial involving 74 children with type 1 diabetes aged 1 to 7 years. For 16 weeks they used the device with CamAPS FX, and it turned out that with automatic regulation, on average, over 72% of the day, the level of insulin in each of the children remained normal.
Sam Wright (right) says the app makes it much easier for her to keep track of her daughter Sophia’s insulin levels
“Safe and efficient”
“CamAPS FX improved a number of measures, including the number of hyperglycemic episodes and mean blood sugar levels in children, without increasing the risk of hypoglycemia,” said study co-author Dr Julia Ware.
“Parents say the artificial iron has changed their lives because they can finally stop worrying regarding their kids’ blood sugar, especially at night,” she adds.
One such parent is Sam Wright, mother of six-year-old Sophia, who has type 1 diabetes. She used to have to set an alarm at night to check her daughter’s sugar levels in time.
“It feels like for the first time since her diagnosis, I can relax,” she says.
