“Artificial Pancreas” for Inpatient Diabetes Treatment?

Maintaining reasonable glycemic control is difficult in hospitalized patients, given day-to-day fluctuation in caloric intake and effects of illness and medications on carbohydrate metabolism. In this randomized trial that involved 136 type 2 diabetic patients on general non–intensive care unit wards at two hospitals (1 in England and 1 in Switzerland), researchers assessed use of a closed-loop insulin-delivery system (i.e., an “artificial pancreas”). Half the patients received the closed-loop system, which included a subcutaneous continuous glucose monitor that communicated with a subcutaneous insulin pump. The other half received conventional insulin therapy, dosed according to fingerstick glucose measurements (however, these control pati…