Clinical hurdles and possible solutions in the implementation of closed-loop control in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

From an engineering perspective, controlling blood glucose appears to be a fairly straightforward single input (glucose), single output (insulin) control problem. Unfortunately, mimicking Mother Nature turns out to be a complex endeavor. The primary hurdle in developing a useful, safe closed-loop control algorithm for an artificial pancreas is the time delays associated with current continuous glucose monitors and subcutaneously delivered insulins. This article will provide a brief history of the artificial pancreas, outline the main clinical hurdles restricting its current implementation, and list possible solutions for success.