A spin through the Exhibit Hall

Walking through the massive Moscone Convention Center here in San Francisco, it’s easy to forget where in the world you are. As big as the place is, it’s as crowded as a busy city street, and the voices around you are speaking a dozen different languages.

There are about 15,000 people from a dozen or more countries at the ADA’s 68th Scientific Sessions. Even the press room has been packed, more than I remember in previous years, and American journalists seem to be outnumbered by those from media outlets in France, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Poland, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Downstairs in the cavernous, noisy, bustling Exhibit Hall, where companies that make pharmaceuticals and medical devices set up displays, members of Team Type 1, the cycling team made up of athletes with type 1 diabetes, demonstrate their riding skills on a stationary bike set up at the Abbott Freestyle Navigator booth. Last year, just their second year competing, the team won the Race Across America, which bills itself as “The World’s Toughest Bicycle Race.’’

Not only did Team Type 1 win the 24-hour relay race, but they also set a record, crossing the country in 5 1/2 days. Team member Matt Vogel, 32, a triathlete as well as a cyclist, has had diabetes for 18 years. “Two weeks after I was diagnosed, I thought, I have a choice,’’ he said. “Do I feel sorry for myself, or do I manage my diabetes and move on?’’ Clearly, he moved on. He and his teammates will set off again across American when the race starts Wednesday in Oceanside, Calif. You can follow the team’s progress and cheer them on at www.teamtype1.org.

Elsewhere in the Exhibit Hall companies display new products or designs for future devices to make living with diabetes easier. Examples:

• A luxurious Lincoln parked at the Medtronic booth displays a built-in car dashboard screen that integrates Medtronic’s continuous glucose monitoring system into the technology in the car. The touch screen, which looks like the built-in screens found in many newer car models, will accommodate a GPS system, radio and other standard features, but for wearers of Medtronic’s CGM system, it will receive information from the system’s transmitter and provide continuous updates on readings and trends. It’s still in the concept phase and Medtronic would have to partner with automakers to produce the technology.

• Tube-free insulin pumps. The OmniPod has two parts – the 1.2 ounce pod, worn on the arm or elsewhere on the body, and the personal diabetes manager that programs the pod with individual basal rates and bolus dosages. It still requires fingerstick glucose monitoring, but the company is working on developing its own CGM system. Meanwhile, companies that already have CGM systems are working to develop tube-free insulin pumps, so presumably, in a couple of year’s the complete systems, sans annoying tubes, will be available.

• A remote glucose monitor. This is another of Medtronic's concepts. It’s comparable to a baby monitor used by worried new parents, but would display all the information on an insulin pump, complete with an alarm, so parents can keep an eye on their little one’s glucose levels without standing over the bed all night.

• A new blood test, called GlycoMark, enhances the information provided by the A1C by measuring post-meal glucose levels. Dr. Eric Button of the University of North Carolina, scientific developer of the test, said the $10 test is licensed by the Food and Drug Administration as an adjunct for A1C testing, for people whose diabetes is moderately controlled (under 8.5%). “The advantage of this is that it can tell when there are elevated glucose levels, such as after meals – and we have agents to target that, like Byetta,’’ he said. The test can be used as often as every two weeks.

Comments

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[diabetes]

Wow, I'm sure there's still a lot to see there!

Sam