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The Duchess of Cornwall praised an artificial pancreas created by medical researchers to give patients with type 1 diabetes control of their lives as "brilliant".
During a visit to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, Camilla was shown the innovative technology tested in the UK, which mimics the human body and automatically gives patients the right amount of insulin. thus end the need for constant monitoring and injections.
At the end of her visit, the Duchess said: "After seeing this artificial pancreas – and as a technophobe, I would not have understood at all what he is doing – it is quite simple and quite brilliant . "
The artificial pancreas, which researchers hope to commercialize in the future, is a small skin sensor that sends blood glucose data to a smartphone installed with software that tells a small pump the amount of insulin to administer to a patient. patient.
Camilla was briefed by the young patients and their families about issues related to type 1 diabetes and met with part of the team behind the project based at the Cambridge Clinical Research Center, part of the NHS research group .
The parents said that they would get up more than six times a night to check their child's blood glucose level and make injections if necessary.
The Duchess added, "I am sure this will change the lives of many of you and many of your children in the very near future.
"They just have to go through the right channels, find the money and make everyone believe because I'm convinced that it will save many lives and make it easier to manage."
For people with type 1 diabetes, their pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that controls blood glucose. Therefore, after regular blood tests, they should inject insulin to make sure they have the right level of blood glucose.
If it is too high, long-term problems include blindness and kidney disease, and if it is too low, a patient could become confused and fall into a coma.
Dr. Roman Hovorka, from Cambridge University, leads the team that has been working on the system since 2006 and is financially supported by the JDRF Charitable Foundation, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and chaired by Camilla .
Dr. Hovorka, a professor of diabetes technology, told Camilla that the pump's secret reproduced the work of nature: "It's what our smart body does all the time without us knowing it."
Camilla asked about Theresa May, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in old age and uses a sensor to measure her blood glucose level.
The Duchess met Rob Hewlett, 41, of Cambridge, who discovered that he was in the same state as the Prime Minister when he woke up in a Sydney hospital after he was wounded. being collapsed on a plane while traveling in Australia at the age of 26.
He explained to Camilla the threat of low blood glucose, called hypoglycemia, when sleep was a constant concern: "The night is a frightening time because you sleep and you do not know what's going on."
Hewlett, who helped test the artificial pancreas, added, "In the diabetic community, there is an idea called DIB – dead in bed. You have a serious hypo and you do not wake up – it's something that gets in my head, but with this system, it's like a little guardian angel. "
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