Researchers at Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital found patients with Type 1 diabetes who used an artificial pancreas synced wirelessly to an iPhone were more likely to have a normal range of blood glucose levels and fewer dangerous lows and highs.

The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published by the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted in 20 adults and 32 children over the course of five days. The adults wore the device–which researchers call a bihormonal bionic pancreas–unrestricted around Boston, while the children were at a camp for children with Type 1 diabetes. Both groups were also monitored for five days using their own conventional insulin pumps.

After 5 days with the device, researchers recorded about 37% fewer interventions for low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) and a more than twofold reduction in hypoglycemic periods in adults than when they were using a manual pump. For the teens using the artificial pancreas at the camp, there was a better than twofold reduction in the need for interventions for hypoglycemia. The study also shows that for both groups there were significant improvements in glucose levels with the device, particularly during the night.

”With promising results such as these, we plan to support larger multi-center trials of the artificial pancreas in the near future,” Guillermo Arreaza-Rubín, M.D., the project officer for artificial pancreas studies funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said in a release. ”Within the next few years, we hope these technologies will go beyond experimental trials and be available to benefit more people with Type 1 diabetes.”

The device uses two pumps to dispense insulin and glucagon and is wirelessly connected through an app to an iPhone that features a glucose monitoring device. Glucose levels are monitored by a sensor implanted under the skin on one side of the patient’s abdomen and are sent to the phone, which calculates the dose of insulin or glucagon needed. The doses are dispensed through two small infusion points on the opposite side of their abdomens. Patients still have to do a finger stick twice a day to get an accurate blood reading that they enter into the phone.

From editors@fiercemedicaldevices.com

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