An Artificial Pancreas for Diabetics is Almost Here

If you’ve ever taken an introductory cultural anthropology class, you might recall reading a paper on “Body Ritual among the Nacirema.” Written in 1956, it’s an account of an anthropologist who visits a tribe and observes all kinds of weird behavior – like medicine men who jab coated needles into the flesh of the natives. Some of these natives actually poke themselves with needles, multiple times a day, an act that draws blood which they then use to perform some strange ritual with. Long story short, after students read this paper, they’re then asked what they think of the Nacirema, to which most usually respond “what a bunch of savages.” Then the punchline comes out. Nacirema is simply the word “American” spelled backwards. The paper is actually describing modern-day Americans, and even though stabbing yourself with a needle four times a day sounds extremely primitive, it’s what millions of diabetics do every day.

We sat down to talk with a veteran medical professional who has spent the majority of his 30-year career in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) watching patients file in, many suffering through problems relating to improper blood sugar management. Given their condition, diabetics are treated differently, and it creates problems when medical staff are unaware if someone is a diabetic or not. He talked about how sometimes a test for blood sugar turns out to be the answer to the patient’s problem, yet this can get easily overlooked. Some patients – think about your teenage kids – choose not to be compliant and consequently end up in ICU so often that they’re sometimes referred to by medical staff as “frequent flyers.” There’s an immediate need for a techn