Technological Advances in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Technologies to support the management of type 1 diabetes (T1D) have seen incredible advances over the past few decades. The past 10 years have specially viewed more rapid advances in the technology used to treat patients with T1D. While the disease burden is still high, these advances, wherever available, have contributed to improvements in both glycemic control and quality of life for many of those children affected or their parents.New technologies allow for individualization of care and help to ease the burden of self-management as patients are able to work with their providers to determine which systems best fit their lifestyle and needs. In fact, these developments make this a time of unique promise for people with T1D to simultaneously improve glycemic control and reduce hypoglycemia, thereby modifying risk for acute and chronic complications.However, important challenges still remain. Apart from current cost as a major barrier in public accessibility, many HCPs have limited or no experience in using the novel devices. Cybersecurity is another increasing concern.With all Pros and Cons, it seems that at least a considerable part of treatments in T1D in near future will belong to the era of novel technologies which are rapidly moving us toward increasingly automated devices. In fact, we as the seniors, have no other choice and have to try to become familiar and engaged in using them if want to preserve a proper patient-physician relation. In this presentation, we review advances in glucose monitoring and CGM, insulin pump technologies, insulin smart pens, and the applications and algorithms seeking to integrate CGM and insulin pumps into hybrid closed-loop systems.