WASHINGTON - Diabetes care is undergoing a transformation: Thousands of patients are switching from a few finger-pricks a day to track their disease to new sensors that keep guard around the clock.
The last six months brought boosts to the technology, as federal health officials approved children's use of a sensor that works for three days in a row - and cleared the longest-lasting version yet, a seven-day model, for adults.
The ultimate goal is to create an "artificial pancreas," pairing such sensors with implanted pumps that would automatically dispense insulin to make a diabetic's blood sugar better resemble a healthy person's.
That's still years away. For now, the hope is that these under-the-skin sensors will empower the most vulnerable patients - those who require insulin injections - to make changes that better control their disease. Perhaps more important, they come with alarms that can sound in time to avoid dangerously high or low blood-sugar levels.
"It really catches problems before they're problems," says Katie Clark of Grandville, Mich. She bought a sensor for her 7-year-old daughter, and no longer has to wake up in the middle of the night to spot-check whether Ellie's OK.
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