University of Virginia researchers have developed a replacement pancreas for people with diabetes that runs on a cellphone.
The artificial pancreas operates on Android devices. It sends a wireless signal to an insulin pump on a person's body to regulate blood sugar levels every five minutes - even while they're sleeping.
The technology has been in development for five years, but only recently tested successfully outside a hospital setting for the first time with diabetes patients in Europe.
Boris Kovatchev with the UVA Center for Diabetes Technology stated, "That will take away, we hope, the burden of continuous calculation of insulin dosing, the continuous dose of how much insulin and sugar people should take. So, that should take all of that way and bring life more back to normal."
Right now, researchers are going through Food and Drug Administration approval to test the device in the United States. They hope to begin studies with diabetes patients in Virginia in February.
