Savvy Updates 3/3/25: Dexcom G7 Shortage, Dexcom G6 Receiver Recall, Tandem Control-IQ+ for T2Ds, R-VECs for Survival of Insulin-Producing Cells, Cell Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases & Diabetes, HbA1c, Glycemic Control Worsened, NutriBench’s Machine Learning Boosts T1Ds TIR, Enhance-d App for Exercise, Early Vascular Changes in T1D Kids, Apps Can Miss Critical Alerts, Milk but Not Cheese Boosts Gut Health, Legislation to Stop AI Rejection of Medical Claims, 9 Weirdest Robots in the World

In this week’s issue of The Savvy Diabetic:

- Dexcom G7 Shortage (video by Dr. David Ahn)
- Dexcom G6 Receiver Recall
- Tandem Control-IQ+ for T2Ds
- R-VECs for Survival of Insulin-Producing Cells
- Kadimastem and iTolerance Cell Therapies for Neuro Diseases & Diabetes
- HbA1c, Glycemic Control Worsened in 2022-2023
- NutriBench’s Machine Learning Boosts T1Ds TIR
- Enhance-d App for Managing Exercise with T1D and T2D
- Ultrasound Detects Early Vascular Changes in T1D Kids
- Apps Can Miss Critical Alerts. FDA recommendations
- Milk Boosts Gut Health but Cheese May Cause Harm
- Legislation to Stop AI Rejection of Medical Claims
- 9 Weirdest Robots in the World (just for fun)

Dexcom G7 Shortage: Official Details and What to Do by Dr. David Ahn (diabetesdoc) on TikTok.com, 20 February 2025.

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Urgent: Medical Device Correction – Dexcom G6 Receiver – Class 2 Device Recall Dexcom G6 Receiver

Date: January/February 2025
Urgent: Medical Device Correction
Dexcom G6 Receiver – MT24078

Attention: Valued Dexcom Customer: We are contacting you as Dexcom has become aware that users of certain G6 Receivers may experience an issue where alarm/alerts may not function as designed. In such instances, the alarm/alert may be missed or delayed. We have identified the source of the issue and will be releasing a software update to solve this. Please read this message, as it will help you identify if your Dexcom G6 receiver is in need of a software update.

Description of the Problem: Users of the Dexcom G6 Receiver with the impacted software have reported an issue as follows:

- Receiver may not alert as designed including missed or delayed alarm/alerts
- Missed/delayed alarm/alerts may include: Low/High Glucose Alerts, Urgent Low Alarm, Urgent Low Soon Alert, Rise/Fall Rate Alerts, Signal Loss Alert, or Sensor Alert

We are working to provide a path whereby users can update their receivers to resolve this issue. Active G6 Receiver users will receive an Urgent: Medical Device Correction Update Notification, via email, regarding the software update availability. In the meantime, we recommend that you use the G6 App as primary display device to receive glucose readings and alerts. The G6 transmitter allows simultaneous communication with an iOS or Android device as well as a receiver. The G6 App is not impacted by the issue documented in this notification and may be used in addition to or instead of the optional G6 Receiver.

Recommended Customer Action: If you are or plan to be an active user of an affected Dexcom G6 Receiver, please complete the following actions related to an important software update: Please navigate to the following webpage on your internet browser using your tablet or computer: https://www.dexcom.com/g6-receiver-update

Tandem’s insulin pump tech wins FDA nod for Type 2 diabetes by Elise Reuter for MedTechDive.com, 27 February 2025.

Tandem Diabetes Care received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its Control-IQ+ algorithm in Type 2 diabetes. The automated insulin delivery (AID) system can pull data from glucose monitors and integrate with Tandem’s insulin pumps, automatically calculating how much basal insulin patients should receive. The expanded indication increases access for people with Type 2 diabetes who use Tandem’s t:slim X2 tubed pump and Tandem Mobi, a smaller form-factor pump.

CEO John Sheridan told investors that the expanded indication covers all people with Type 2 diabetes who take insulin, more than doubling Tandem’s total addressable market in the U.S.

Tandem modified the Control-IQ algorithm, including expanding weight ranges and total daily insulin ranges. The company plans a pilot launch of the updated software beginning in March, said Chief Commercial Officer Mark Novara.

Islet transplantation with blood vessel cells shows promise for treating type 1 diabetes by Conor Seery for Diabetes.co.uk, 22 February 2025.

A pioneering study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine has demonstrated a new method that could transform islet transplantation for people with type 1 diabetes. By incorporating engineered human blood vessel cells called reprogrammed vascular endothelial cells (R-VECs), the team successfully improved the survival of insulin-producing cells – restoring normal blood sugar levels in a preclinical trial. Published in Science Advances, the research presents a new approach that implants islets under the skin instead of in the liver.

The addition of R-VECs enables the transplanted islets to quickly form a stable blood supply, enhancing their survival and function. Islets need a rich network of blood vessels to function properly but traditional transplantation methods do not provide this support. R-VECs, developed from human umbilical vein cells, are engineered to be highly adaptable and durable – helping to form a strong vascular network around the transplanted islets.

Kadimastem and iTolerance Successfully Complete Pre-IND Meeting with the FDA for its Type 1 Diabetes Treatment by NLS Pharmaceutics Ltd and published by PRNewsWire.com, 25 February 2025.

NLS Pharmaceutics Ltd. and Kadimastem Ltd., a clinical-stage company specializing in “off-the-shelf” allogeneic cell therapy products for neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes, in collaboration with iTolerance Inc., a U.S.-based regenerative medicine company, announced today the result from the Type B pre-IND meeting held by Kadimastem and iTolerance with a committee of the U.S Food and Drug Administration on February 24, 2025, regarding the development of iTOL-102, a potential cure for diabetes that would not require life-long chronic immune system suppression. iTOL-102 is an investigational biologic for the treatment and potential cure of Type 1 Diabetes consisting of Kadimastem’s allogenic human stem cell-derived pancreatic islets (IsletRx cells) combined with iTolerance’s immunomodulator (iTOL-100).

iTOL-100 is an immunomodulatory microgel technology being developed by iTolerance designed to reduce or eliminate the need for life-long chronic systemic immunosuppression following the transplantation of allogenic cells. In a preclinical diabetic rodent model designed by iTolerance, iTOL-100 was shown by iTolerance to be compatible with Kadimastem’s IsletRx human stem cell-derived islets.

Kadimastem’s IsletRx is a clinical-grade product candidate comprising human pancreatic islet-like cells capable of secreting insulin. IsletRx, a preparation of human stem cell-derived islets developed by Kadimastem, is a scalable and virtually unlimited source of insulin-producing cells that could address the critical shortage of donor islets for transplantation. This innovative therapy may effectively detect glucose levels in the body and produce the necessary amounts of insulin and glucagon.

HbA1c, glycemic control worsened for US adults with diabetes from 2020 to 2023 by Michael Monostra for Healio.com/endocrinology, 27 February 2025.

The prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. did not significantly change from 2013 to 2023, but the percentage of adults with diabetes achieving glycemic control fell after 2020, according to a research letter published in JAMA.

“Our findings are very concerning, because poor control of cardiometabolic risk factors like diabetes increases lifetime risk of having a heart attack or a stroke,” said Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and associate director of the Smith Center for Outcomes Research. “We found a crisis of worsening diabetes control among young adults, which began between 2021 and 2023. These concerning changes could be related to spillover effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including disruptions in access to health care, increases in sedentary behaviors and worsening social support and psychosocial stressors.”

How Can Machine Learning Boost T1D Patients’ Time in Range? by Marilynn Larkin for MedScape.com, 21 February 2025.

Yao Qin, PhD, assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 2011. Her efforts to simplify both tasks while improving accuracy — for herself and for others — was the focus of her recent presentation at the Endocrine Society’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare Virtual Summit. To tackle the challenge of counting carbohydrates for every meal, Qin has led the team that produced NutriBench, a publicly available natural language meal description database. On the exercise side, she has received a grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust for a project testing the impact of automated insulin delivery (AID) in helping people with T1D maintain their time in range when working out.

For people with T1D, carbohydrate estimation is required before every meal so patients can roughly gauge how many units of insulin they need to inject to keep their blood glucose within the range. “Right now, most patients do a manual estimation, which is very challenging because it’s hard to memorize all the carbohydrate nutrition information that’s required,” Qin said. By contrast, large language models (LLMs), a type of AI that can generate and understand human language, can do the same task of producing carbohydrate estimates automatically, based on real-world food descriptions, she explained.

Free Exercise App Sweats the Details by Paul Heltzel for diaTribe.org, 21 February 2025.

A free app called Enhance-d aims to make exercise while managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes easier. Available for iPhone and Android, the app pulls health-related diabetes data into one place through a series of colorful graphs.

The app also integrates data from wearable devices that track fitness, like those from Fitbit and Garmin, or the Oura ring, which can record heart rate, sleep quality, and stress data. The Enhance-d app pulls data from these various health devices and apps and produces reports showing how different physical activity, meals, insulin doses, sleep patterns, and other factors affect time in range.

Ultrasound Detects Early Vascular Changes in Kids With T1D by Javed Choudhury for MedScape.com, 28 February 2025.

Children with well-regulated type 1 diabetes (T1D) showed early vascular changes, with increased intima thickness in radial and dorsal pedal arteries as opposed to healthy control individuals without the condition.

Compared with healthy control individuals, children with T1D had increased dorsal pedal intima thickness, dorsal pedal intima-media thickness, and radial intima thickness. In children with T1D, carotid intima thickness was negatively correlated with time in range and time in tight range, whereas it was positively correlated with mean glucose and longitudinal A1c.

T1D diagnosis was identified as the strongest determinant of intima thickness across all examined arteries.

Patients using diabetes apps can miss critical alerts. Here’s how to make sure you’re getting them by Matthew Perrone for APNews.com, 5 February 2025.

Patients who use smartphone apps to manage their diabetes could face serious health problems if they miss notifications needed to control their blood sugar. The Food and Drug Administration has received multiple reports of users missing or not hearing important medical alerts from their phones, leading to cases of dangerously low blood sugar and even death.

“Even if configured correctly, certain hardware or software changes can interrupt the expected operation of these critical devices, which can lead to patient harm if undetected,” said Courtney Lias, a division director in the FDA’s device center, in a release.

To make sure glucose-monitoring apps are working properly, FDA regulators recommend:

- - Turn off automatic updates on your smartphone until you’ve confirmed the new operating system is compatible with your diabetes app.
  - After connecting your smartphone to a new accessory, such as Bluetooth headphones, confirm that app alerts are still being delivered and can be heard clearly.
  - Once a month, double check that your smartphone’s notification settings haven’t changed.

Milk may help boost gut health, while cheese could harm it by Corrie Pelc for MedicalNewsToday.com, 26 February 2025.

Recent research suggests that a healthy microbiome can help lower a person’s risk for gastrointestinal-related conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), irritable bowel disease (IBD), and leaky gut syndrome. “We know that the microbiota — including bacteria, fungi, virus, and other microbes — that naturally live in our gut are important for our overall health, immune function, and various health conditions,” said Li Jiao, MD, MS, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine. Jiao is the senior author of a new study recently published in the journal Nutrients, providing evidence that different types of dairy products affect the gut microbiome differently.

Scientists observed that participants who ate higher amounts of cheese had a lower amount of the bacterium Bacteroides in their gut microbiome. Past studies provide conflicting evidence on the health effects of Bacteroides. Some research suggests this bacterium produces toxins that promote tumor formation and are associated with colorectal cancer development. However, low levels of Bacteroides have also been linked to IBD.

Jiao and her team also observed that those who consumed more total diary and milk had a higher amount of the bacteria Faecalibacterium and Akkermansia in their microbiome. Faecalibacterium may help reduce inflammation and protect the gut against intestinal diseases, and Akkermansia may help avoid or slow the progression of conditions like IBD.

Arizona advances bill to keep AI from rejecting medical claims by Julia Shapero for TheHill.com, 21 February 2025.

Arizona state lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday that would ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to deny medical claims. The bill, which was sponsored by state Rep. Julie Willoughby (R), requires a healthcare provider to review a claim or prior authorization before it can be denied. “With the advancement of AI algorithms into just about every part of our lives now, we want to make sure that this doesn’t hinder any health care or have any overburdensome access to care for any patients,” Willoughby said at a committee hearing earlier this month.

“What we’re asking for in this is that any claims that are denied have a provider look them over for completeness, to ensure that there isn’t anything that the AI algorithm may not have accounted for,” she added. The Arizona bill mirrors legislation that passed the California Legislature last year and was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in September.

The Physicians Make Decisions Act, which went into effect last month, requires a healthcare provider to review any denial, delay or change to care based on medical necessity.

The 9 weirdest robots in the world right now by Alex Hughes for ScienceFocus.com, 1 November 2024. Robots are advancing rapidly. But as they learn more and more skills, they just keep getting creepier.

Today’s futuristic bots aren’t armed with a shotgun and Austrian accent, or even the dexterity of most sci-fi automatons. Instead, they’re learning to be human… slowly. They can speak, express ‘human emotion’, perform everyday tasks, and many of them can walk, albeit like a baby taking its first steps. We’re seeing the first steps towards a world where humanoid robots stand next to us, triggering an uncanny valley like never before. With so many robots being made, which weird and wonderful bots are leading the pack? Here are the 10 strangest to look out for.

Ameca by Engineered Arts, dubbed ‘the world’s most advanced’ humanoid robot. Ameca has emotions… in a way … to show feelings on its face and through its body. It can smile, laugh, and even express through full-body emotions. In other words, Ameca is the robot that feels the most human in its movements. It won’t kill you or replace you in the office, but it just might be the most charming dinner guest at the table.

Boston Dynamics ATLAS is a humanoid robot, entirely powered by electricity. With a creepy circular face and a large light beam, it resembles a walking Sauron, capable of crushing objects in its way and climbing over obstacles… not unsettling at all.

Unitree G1, is a ‘humanoid agent AI avatar will set you back $16,000 which, by the standards of humanoid robots, is actually surprisingly affordable. However, it’s not entirely clear what the robot is for. Unitree highlights videos of the robot spinning a stick around like a lightsaber, smashing chestnuts with its fist, breaking the top of a cola bottle, and hitting its hand with a hammer… for some reason.

MenteeBot by Mentee Robotics is oddly wholesome, at least in the tasks it is advertised for. The creators envision the lanky robot being an assistant to the average person, helping to complete jobs which could otherwise be difficult. This includes lifting and moving heavy boxes, cleaning, and even pushing a trolley around a supermarket for you.

Figure AI by Figure is one of the leading options for this market, mostly thanks to its partnership with the company, OpenAI. Using technology from the AI behemoth, Figure can accept voice commands and have conversations with people. This, combined with its training on a variety of factory tasks, allows it to work its way through a full day of jobs, while also taking verbal commands if priorities change. In theory, this all sounds great. In practice, it’s still got a long way to go.

ARTEMIS by UCLA, the football-playing robot, has high expectations from its founders. So high in fact that they gave it the name “a robot that exceeds Messi in soccer” – or ARTEMIS for short. Built by a team from UCLA, the football extraordinaire has been in the works for years now. ARTEMIS currently competes in the RoboCup, an international autonomous robot soccer competition. But his creators want him, along with a range of other robots, to be playing the World Cup-winning team by 2050. ARTEMIS was displayed at GITEX 2023, a large tech convention, where we saw it struggle to kick a ball directly in front of it, often kicking the air or only just clipping the ball.

NEO Beta by Ix.tech is as impressive as it is creepy. Described as a significant advancement in robotics, the company believes that Neo can be the first robot in your home, doing chores and helping out with day-to-day tasks. So far, they’ve shown it making coffee, folding laundry, hugging people, and picking up your backpack on your way out of the house. Remarkable on paper, yes. But less so in reality when it seems poised to break down under any task, quivering at the mere effort of a hug.

SlothBot by Georgia Tech was made to be cute, hiding an array of robotics in a friendly frame. However, between the dead eyes and the never-ending smile, this tightrope-clinging robot is oddly unsettling. And yet, the Sloth Bot can’t do all that much. It is solar-powered and requires a cable to get about. So, what’s the point, other than being apparently adorable? This robot is designed to be present in natural ecosystems, mainly under tree canopies for long periods, to assess microclimate data day-to-day without the interruption of humans.

Vero by Italian Institute of Technology with a singular purpose, spends its time picking up cigarettes from the beach. Standing for Vacuum-cleaner Equipped Robot, VERO is designed entirely around this job. VERO is a simple guy and we love that about him.