Savvy Tech Updates, 8/12/2018: Accu-Chek Solo, Senseonics, Implantable Pump, GlucoScanner

Dang, if I take a week off, there is just SO MUCH new tech news! And tonight is the meteor shower! What a wonderful world!

Accu-Chek Solo Tubeless Patch Pump Approved in Europe (finally) as announced by Roche and publsihed in diaTribe.org, 7 August 2018. This is FINALLY the SOLO pump! TUBELESS!

Roche bought this technology from Israel-based Medingo, just after it received FDA approval … and then it disappeared. I still have the sample pod!

Roche announced that its Accu-Chek Solo insulin patch pump and wireless touchscreen handheld has received safety approval to launch in Europe. Like Insulet’s Omnipod, Accu-Chek Solo is a tubeless insulin pump worn as a patch directly on the body and controlled from a wireless handheld, enabling discreet insulin delivery. The pump will become available in Austria, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK beginning in the coming weeks. More European countries are expected in 2019. Roche plans to work with the FDA to bring the pump to the US at some point.

The pump does not have a screen and is controlled wirelessly from a touchscreen handheld (via Bluetooth). The handheld also includes a bolus calculator and an integrated Accu-Chek Aviva glucose meter. Solo is “semi-disposable,” meaning the on-body patch includes a reusable component that lasts four months and a disposable component (including the adhesive, 200-unit reservoir, and infusion cannula) that is replaced every two to three days.

Senseonics debuts its 90-day Eversense CGM, as announced on FierceBiotech.com, 9 August 2018.

Barely two months after scoring an FDA nod, Senseonics’ long-term continuous glucose monitor is hitting the market. It is now available in clinics across the U.S. and has secured its first commercial payer: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey.

The device is the first FDA-approved CGM with a fully implantable sensor and the world’s first and only long-term CGM system. The sensor can be implanted for 90 days, compared to the 7 to 14 days typical for the sensors of traditional CGM systems. It uses light-based technology to measure glucose levels, communicating them to a mobile app via a smart transmitter.

Senseonics has already been selling the 90-day Eversense system in Europe for a couple of years. An even longer-term version, which can be implanted for 180 days, earned a CE mark last September. The Germantown, Maryland-based company then inked a European distribution deal with Roche.

Interesting reading about the Implantable Insulin Pump, from The Inplantable Insulin Pump Foundation, based in … well, I just don’t know! It’s a strange site … and they claim that there are fewer than 500 people worldwide using an implantable pump, and all of them have the same pump since it was designed in 2001. I truly wish this site gave more specific information. I do know that I was in line for the implantable pump in 1981, as patient #11 in the US, at the University of California, Irvine under Dr. Jean-Louis Selam. He and Dr. Christ Saudek at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center were implanting a hockey-puck size device in to the peritoneum (stomach cavity, just under the ribs). It was exciting, as I played tennis at the University of Pennsylvania with the first patient ever to receive this pump. BTW, he’s still alive but now on a traditional insulin pump. Please do let me know what you think!!!

GlucoScanner: Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitor Uses Optical Technology was reported by DiabetesDaily.com, 31 July 2018.

GlucoScanner is the name of a novel non-invasive glucose monitoring device that is purported to be painless and currently prepping to become available to consumers. It’s being developed at Dynamic Brain Labs in Tokyo and is most notable for how it intends on working without the penetration of tissues and disposable products–so no blood, no sweat, no tears. GlucoScanner has been tested with Tokyo citizens, and the miniaturization phase has now been finished.

The inventor of GlucoScanner, Stefano Valenzi, says that “As soon as prototypes will be ready, we will evaluate our product performance, in a clinical trial being organized, and test if it complies with consumer product quality and safety standards. At the same time, we will also start the necessary procedures to evaluate if our product complies with different medical standards.”