智能手机进入人工胰脏应用领域

研究人员们透过蓝牙技术拨打到智能手机与平板电脑的研究正进一步跨入人工胰脏应用领域。此外，业界许多支持者们希望这项研究成果能进一步为更多的家庭自动化测试系统奠定基础，从而降低并改善医疗保健品质。 目前在市面上已经有多家公司推出了连续血糖监测仪和胰岛素泵，然而却还未能见到一套可实际连接这两种装置的系统，以期实现实时提供胰岛素读数的自动化过程。 全球各地有十多个研究团队都在开发关键算法。大多数都准备进一步扩展试验范围，从花费一天的时间观测几十名患者到持续数周的时间为数百名病人进行测试。 “也许在未来的两到三年内，我们就可以看到市场上推出这一类的新产品，”Cambridge Consultants诊断与生命科学商务总监John Pritchard说。 该 公司正开发一种应用程序，其中将嵌入由Roman Hovorka开发的算法。Roman Hovorka是英国剑桥Addenbrooke医院的首席研究员，目前正使用笔记型计算机进行临床试验，并计划在今年稍晚以智能手机或平板电脑，扩展其 研究工作至以家庭为基础的试验。 “我过去的试验是在医院中由护士监督的环境，也包括无人监控的家庭应用，”Hovorka说，下一阶段则必须在自然环境中以更长的时间试用该系统，才有助于推动系统的广泛使用。 Pritchard 说，在美国加州圣巴巴拉与意大利Padua的研究团队们也积极投入该领域。包括Abbot与Medtronic等几家专门销售帮浦和/或监视器的医疗电子 公司也紧捉这一商机。在最近于芝加哥的一场活动中，来自相关领域的与会者们讨论了如何为治疗糖尿病开发死循环式算法。 “从大多数团队取得的的数据十分令人振奋，显示出具有较佳的控制，”Pritchard说，“许多医药方面的资料都显示如果能更加密切控制血糖，并发症较少，就会更健康。”

从血糖传感器取得测试数据(1)，传送至监视器(2)，再然后传送至智能手机(3)，以决定下一步行动并传送至胰岛素泵(4)。
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本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：手机商并不希产品被定位于医疗级设备，因为得接受FDA审核

相关阅读：
• 发现未来医疗电子方案市场的热点
• 医疗电子传感器的发展应符合全球医疗市场需求
• 消费电子缺乏带动力新品, 医疗/电力等市场被看好CNHesmc

{pagination} 虽然智能手机和平板电脑在下一轮试验中至关重要，但预期在商用产品中还无法发挥关键作用。医疗电子公司预计将会授权或收购相关算法，并嵌入于泵或监视器中。 “但手机制造商并不希产品被定位于医疗级设备，而得接受 FDA 的审核，”Pritchard说。 目前对于这些算法可能需要多大的处理性能或内存尚不清楚。然而，他们预计将采用蓝牙作为传输方式。 根据统计，全美约有三百万人罹患第1型糖尿病，每年还有3万多人被诊断出患有糖尿病。大约有20%的患者需要携带胰岛素帮浦，但只有约2%的患者使用连续监视仪。 全球医疗监视器市场预计每年将成长12%，2016年可望达到3.7亿美元的市场规模，其中96%都在美国销售。有鉴于其庞大的规模与成长率，这一市场预期将可为其它自动家用测试系统的发展而铺路。 研究人员们目前正探索监测气喘情况或某些癌症疗法的疗效，作为家庭保健护理的下一步。然而，还需要更多的应用案例来证明其成效。 “每套医疗保健系统都承受着降低成本的压力，”Pritchard说，“但即使你能在2分钟内完成一项原本需要30分钟的测试，你仍然必须回答有关‘so what’的纵向关系问题。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Susan Hong 参考英文原文：Artificial Pancreas Dials Up Smartphones，by Rick Merritt

相关阅读：
• 发现未来医疗电子方案市场的热点
• 医疗电子传感器的发展应符合全球医疗市场需求
• 消费电子缺乏带动力新品, 医疗/电力等市场被看好CNHesmc

{pagination} Artificial Pancreas Dials Up Smartphones Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. — Researchers are dialing into smartphones and tablets via Bluetooth for the next big step toward the artificial pancreas. Backers hope the work could lay a foundation for other automated, in-home tests, lowering costs and improving quality of healthcare. Today multiple companies market continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps. However, so far no one has fielded a system that connects the two devices and automates the process of delivering insulin based on real-time readings. As many as a dozen research groups around the world are at work developing the key algorithms. Most are poised to extend trials from tests of a couple dozen patients overnight to several hundred patients in trials lasting several weeks. "I could see something on the market perhaps two to three years out," says John Pritchard, commercial director of diagnostics and life sciences at Cambridge Consultants Ltd. The company is developing an app that will embed an algorithm under development by Roman Hovorka, a principal investigator at Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge, UK. Roman conducted bedside trials using notebook computers and plans to expand his work to home-based trials using smartphone or tablets later this year. "My previous trials were nurse-supervised in a hospital setting and also included unsupervised home use of the system," said Hovorka, a director of research at the University of Cambridge in a press statement. "Trialling the system in a natural setting over a longer time period is the next stage in making the system widely available," he said. Research groups in Santa Barbara, Calif., and Padua, Italy, are also active in the field, said Pritchard. A handful of medical electronics companies selling pumps and/or monitors, including Abbot, Medtronic, and others, are also in the hunt. At a recent event in Chicago they discussed efforts to develop closed-loop algorithms for the treatment of diabetes. "Data from most of the groups has been encouraging, showing better control," Pritchard said. "Lots of medical data shows that if glucose is controlled more tightly there are less complications and greater wellness." Trials will take data from a glucose sensor (1), send it to a monitor (2), and then to a smartphone (3), which will determine actions and send them to a pump (4).