Hi Stoyan:
– Am I ready to trust the AP, since it’s another robotic device/system? On one hand, yes I am. Just like I trust my pump and CGM, my other so-called bionic limbs currently being used. However, with the AP being more “smart” in combining these functions and being able to take some of the guess-work out, there’s a natural level of skepticism about completely trusting a device. But I trust that before the FDA would allow approval, they’d ensure safety and compliance with strict standards as they do for their other devices. So yes, I’d trust the AP because of my robotic device history and the overall process for the most part.
This doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t completely “trust” its 100% accuracy, given our current state of sensor accuracy and the fact that our meters have had the same 20+/- error margin since the 80s. But that’s a different discussion. It’s not perfect, obviously, but even with the flaws it’s been proven to safe lives and improve management in the non-U.S. countries where it’s approved.
-So are you ready to live with an artifical pancreas? Yes, I would be if it were available and I could afford it. But I’d really really really like the choice to have it as an option.
-Do you think the majority of diabetics will be ready to accept it as a cure? I don’t pretend to speak for any other Person With Diabetes, but I highly doubt anyone (myself included) would be “ready to accept it as a cure.” It’s not a cure, and I don’t believe I’ve heard anyone say that they believe it is a cure. However, I believe – and have heard countless other Adult Type 1s say – that if it were available, it could possibly be as close to a cure as we might ever see in our lifetimes.
-How practical will efforts be to distribute it to a large part of the population in the U.S. and abroad? (though the U.S. is actually behind Europe in this regard)
Again, there’s an affordability issue – and much like the CGM, I’d expect that it would take time for this to become covered and mainstream for those of us who need and want one.
Is the AP really the “holy grail,” as the article claims?
I don’t see it as a “holy grail” – that term bothered me in the article. Personally, I see a holy grail being more equivalent to insulin. Or, you know, an actual end-all-be-all cure. But a closed loop has been the dream of generations of PWDs for decades, and so in the context of us finding a “holy grail short of a cure,” I might be comfortable enough with that.
Short answer: Trust outweighs the distrust. That’s just me.
