![]() Some experimental devices, including one that has been tested in clinical trials, feature an oxygen chamber that can supply the cells, but this chamber needs to be reloaded periodically. However, finding a reliable oxygen supply for these encapsulated cells has proven challenging. More recently, researchers have shown similar success with islet cells derived from stem cells, but patients who receive those cells also need to take immunosuppressive drugs.Īnother possibility, which could prevent the need for immunosuppressive drugs, is to encapsulate the transplanted cells within a flexible device that protects the cells from the immune system. Some diabetes patients have received transplanted islet cells from human cadavers, which can achieve long-term control of diabetes however, these patients have to take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their body from rejecting the implanted cells. “If you look at their blood sugar levels, even for people that are very dedicated to being careful, they just can’t match what a living pancreas can do.”Ī better alternative would be to transplant cells that produce insulin whenever they detect surges in the patient’s blood glucose levels. “The vast majority of diabetics that are insulin-dependent are injecting themselves with insulin, and doing their very best, but they do not have healthy blood sugar levels,” Anderson says. However, this process doesn’t replicate the body’s natural ability to control blood glucose levels. ![]() Most patients with Type 1 diabetes have to monitor their blood glucose levels carefully and inject themselves with insulin at least once a day. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute, as well as researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital. ![]() The research team also includes several other researchers from MIT, including Robert Langer, the David H. MIT Research Scientist Siddharth Krishnan is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While the researchers’ main focus is on diabetes treatment, they say that this kind of device could also be adapted to treat other diseases that require repeated delivery of therapeutic proteins. We’re excited by the progress so far, and we really are optimistic that this technology could end up helping patients,” says Daniel Anderson, a professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), and the senior author of the study. “You can think of this as a living medical device that is made from human cells that secrete insulin, along with an electronic life support-system. The researchers now hope to create a larger version of the device, about the size of a stick of chewing gum, that could eventually be tested in people with Type 1 diabetes. The researchers showed that when implanted into diabetic mice, this device could keep the mice’s blood glucose levels stable for at least a month. To overcome that hurdle, MIT engineers have designed a new implantable device that not only carries hundreds of thousands of insulin-producing islet cells, but also has its own on-board oxygen factory, which generates oxygen by splitting water vapor found in the body. However, one major obstacle to this approach is that once the cells are implanted, they eventually run out of oxygen and stop producing insulin. See also appendix of Diagnosis-Related Groups.One promising approach to treating Type 1 diabetes is implanting pancreatic islet cells that can produce insulin when needed, which can free patients from giving themselves frequent insulin injections. If, however, a patient's bill is more than that reimbursed by Medicare for a specific diagnosis, the hospital must absorb the difference in cost. If a patient's hospital bill should total less than the amount paid by Medicare, the hospital is allowed to keep the difference. Therefore, all patients admitted for a surgical procedure such as hernia repair would be charged the same amount regardless of actual cost to the hospital. ![]() The program of DRG reimbursement was based on the premise that similar medical diagnoses would generate similar costs for hospitalization. The payment plan was intended to control rising health care costs by paying a fixed amount per patient. In 1983, amendments to Social Security contained a prospective payment plan for most Medicare inpatient services in the United States. Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG) a system of classification or grouping of patients according to medical diagnosis for purposes of paying hospitalization costs.
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