Smartphones have gotten good enough to provide nearly continuous, closed-loop, outpatient control of blood sugar in people with diabetes, according to a recently published study. Prior to this study, artificial pancreas tests had employed laptops wired to continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps. The paper called this “a system limiting free movement and too cumbersome to be used beyond hospital confines.”

For this experiment, patients actually controlled system settings in order to replicate how they might use the technology away from clinical environments. The researchers found that this worked well enough to declare the smartphone platform “appropriate for outpatient use.”

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