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Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

businessinsider.com

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Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#21

Post by mkesper »

barely_stubbell wrote: post #17

This article leaves us hanging; the initial motivator for developing the system is to prevent instances of overnight hypoglycemia - but we reach a conclusion talking about how it can autonomously deliver insulin to correct for hyperglycemic events. Were they ever able to make the algorithm robust enough to predict low blood sugars in the future and "shut off" or reduce delivery of basal insulin to mitigate these even…

Are there systems feeding sugar in such an event? That would be the only thing really preventing a - possibly lethal - hypoglemic event, no?

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#22

Post by afarrell »

dekhn wrote: post #18

While I am a big fan of DIY bio, my experience with Raspberry Pis is that they are highly prone to failure. Becoming dependent on a device- that is, expecting it to work with close to 100% reliability- and then using a device that is easy to disable and prone to failure (I run a fleet of Pis and they mangle their SD cards a lot)- seems like wishful thinking. It may work 95% of the time, but that's not good enough. Th…

At the same time, this is a really cool hobby project that someone interested in a future developing medical devices could try to replicate as they are learning.

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#23

Post by natebleker »

dekhn wrote: post #18

While I am a big fan of DIY bio, my experience with Raspberry Pis is that they are highly prone to failure. Becoming dependent on a device- that is, expecting it to work with close to 100% reliability- and then using a device that is easy to disable and prone to failure (I run a fleet of Pis and they mangle their SD cards a lot)- seems like wishful thinking. It may work 95% of the time, but that's not good enough. Th…

I've had some mixed success with Raspberry Pi's spontaneously failing as well. This is perfect opportunity for a dual or triple redundancy lockstep MCU to take the place of the Raspberry Pi.

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#24

Post by barely_stubbell »

mkesper wrote: post #21
barely_stubbell wrote: post #17

This article leaves us hanging; the initial motivator for developing the system is to prevent instances of overnight hypoglycemia - but we reach a conclusion talking about how it can autonomously deliver insulin to correct for hyperglycemic events. Were they ever able to make the algorithm robust enough to predict low blood sugars in the future and "shut off" or reduce delivery of basal insulin to mitigate these even…

Are there systems feeding sugar in such an event? That would be the only thing really preventing a - possibly lethal - hypoglemic event, no?

Preventing these situations entirely by predicting these events and reducing the administered basal insulin would be ideal, but humans don't exist in a vacuum. I don't think a system autonomously feeding sugar would be the optimal solution however; patients who utilize CGM's today are still instructed to monitor blood glucose through traditional means for calibration and confidence in system accuracy, so I don't think it would be an additional burden for them to continue to carry a source of sugar for emergency hypoglycemic events. I think predicting and preventing lows through lowered basal rates, in combination with on hand sources of glucose for emergency situations, would be best.

Even a reduction in the amount of hypo- (and, hyper-) glycemic events would be a big win for patients and educators. I think the quality of care would vastly increase with such systems in place.

Additionally - the human body has systems in place to bring blood sugars back into a safe range when it feels it is in an emergency situation. I do not claim to be an expert on this matter, but it is my understanding that the liver is able to release glycogen into the system to spike blood glucose levels back up if they have fallen low [1]. This is why some diabetic patients may experience high blood sugars in the mornings if they have experienced a hypoglycemic event overnight and slept through it. I don't believe this would be a good solution to depend on, however.

[1]http://www.diabetes.co.uk/body/liver-and-blood-glucose-level...

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#26

Post by rmhsilva »

userbinator wrote: post #19
dekhn wrote: post #18

While I am a big fan of DIY bio, my experience with Raspberry Pis is that they are highly prone to failure. Becoming dependent on a device- that is, expecting it to work with close to 100% reliability- and then using a device that is easy to disable and prone to failure (I run a fleet of Pis and they mangle their SD cards a lot)- seems like wishful thinking. It may work 95% of the time, but that's not good enough. Th…

I agree, this is a job more suited to a simple 8 or 16-bit micro without any OS.

These days you may as well use a 32bit micro, in terms of cost, toolchain and silicon ability.

The extra dollar you spend on those 16bits easily pays for itself in the extra features you often get with modern 32bit micros.

Especially something like this where you might want to do relatively complex maths / algorithms.

e.g. see the stm32 family

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#27

Post by terminalcommand »

barely_stubbell wrote: post #24
mkesper wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there systems feeding sugar in such an event? That would be the only thing really preventing a - possibly lethal - hypoglemic event, no?

Preventing these situations entirely by predicting these events and reducing the administered basal insulin would be ideal, but humans don't exist in a vacuum. I don't think a system autonomously feeding sugar would be the optimal solution however; patients who utilize CGM's today are still instructed to monitor blood glucose through traditional means for calibration and confidence in system accuracy, so I don't thin…

I've had type 1 diabetes for 9 years. In the first 3-4 years my liver continued to produce glucagon. I experienced highs resulting from the down syndrome over night. But after that it just stopped. Now I automatically wake up if my blood sugar is below a certain threshold. It's a survival instinct. Sometimes though it gets very scary. I can't scream, know that I need to get up and eat something, but I just can't. The downside is that I am very paranoid. I wake up at least once a week at night (around 3 am) and check my blood sugar levels. Even though they are usually in the expected range, I still get that feeling of 'being low'. If I don't act on it, I might die.

Re: Hacked Raspberry Pi turned into artificial pancreas

#30

Post by dekhn »

afarrell wrote: post #22
dekhn wrote: post #18

While I am a big fan of DIY bio, my experience with Raspberry Pis is that they are highly prone to failure. Becoming dependent on a device- that is, expecting it to work with close to 100% reliability- and then using a device that is easy to disable and prone to failure (I run a fleet of Pis and they mangle their SD cards a lot)- seems like wishful thinking. It may work 95% of the time, but that's not good enough. Th…

At the same time, this is a really cool hobby project that someone interested in a future developing medical devices could try to replicate as they are learning.

Absolutely! The Pi is very valuable for exactly that. It's just that dosing yourself is a very serious matter, not a hobby.
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