quotable quotes - May 2013

“Imagine a world where the artificial pancreas is available to everyone who needs it. A world where we wake up in the morning, our blood glucose is reset. A world where we don't have to stop and think all the time. A world where we get a guaranteed A1c in target that will protect us from complications. Imagine the 'health dividend' that the artificial pancreas will create – that would have an enormous long-term impact on healthcare costs. Imagine equally as much change as we have seen since our last meeting in 2010. We look forward to watching our world, following it, writing about it, and to preparing to live a life that is more normal, healthy, productive, and predictable.”

– Kelly Close (diaTribe, San Francisco, CA) on how an artificial pancreas would be life-changing for people with type 1 diabetes. Her comments were met with a round of applause at the FDA/JDRF/NIH Workshop on Innovation Towards an Artificial Pancreas, Bethesda, MD, April 9-10, 2013.

“I do not want perfection to be the enemy of the good, but I don’t want incrementalism to be the enemy of the good either. I think we can do this in four years.”

– Dr. Edward Damiano (Boston University, Boston, MA) in response to a comment on why research and development for the artificial pancreas have been so slow, at the FDA/JDRF/NIH Workshop on Innovation Towards an Artificial Pancreas, Bethesda, MD, April 9-10, 2013.

“I want to throw down the gauntlet to industry. We’re working well with industry, but I would like to see within the next 24 months every pump that is speaking to a sensor have low glucose suspend.”

– Dr. Aaron Kowalski (JDRF, New York City, NY) in a response to what his short-term hopes and expectations are to get an artificial pancreas to patients, during a panel discussion at the FDA/JDRF/NIH Workshop on Innovation Towards an Artificial Pancreas, Bethesda, MD, April 9-10, 2013.

“I’d make the pitch that for full-on prevention trials, we need to screen relatives of people with type 1 diabetes. We know that most families don’t know that family members have a 15-fold increased risk. We do new onset trials to get signal and safety information, and the ultimate goal is for prevention. We need everyone’s help in this audience to screen people for them.”

– Comment from a researcher in the audience at the 13^th annual Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium, Pasadena, CA, March 13-16, 2013.

“We constantly have to justify why we do these trials in children. That’s the group where we see the most potential, where the great unmet medical need is. But we always face the ethical problem of at what point is it acceptable to evaluate new agents in people under 18? What is the risk-to-benefit ratio?”

– Dr. Mario Ehlers (Immune Tolerance Network, Seattle, WA) in response to a question for why more trials for people under age 25 do not exist, even if they have the greatest ability to make more beta cells. Dr. Ehlers was speaking at the 13^th annual Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium, Pasadena, CA, March 13-16, 2013.

“Fifteen years ago, when I came into this field as a hepatic gastroenterologist, I thought the idea of bariatric surgery was at best draconian and at worst medieval. It seemed unfair to physically restrict people from eating. Now we’ve learned that it’s not physical; it is physiological, and I’m clearly a proponent of the procedure now.”