Roundup from ATTD2025

Last week I was in Amsterdam for the ATTD2025 conference and here are 3 big themes I took away about type 1 diabetes treatment and technology. Scroll down to read more here 👇 

1. Automated insulin delivery systems are great!

I know first hand how great automated insulin delivery systems are and they are rightly being celebrated and rolled out to (mainly privileged) patients around the world. This tech is pushing us to think about new treatment targets like Tight Time in Range, something that wouldn't have been possible before. 

2. Well, they're good but could be even better...

The problem is, these systems still need user input and they don't work as aggressively as some people want in dealing with post meal spikes. The answers proposed were different algorithms and multi hormonal approaches using adjunct therapies to slow down food digestion and speed up the insulin response.

Exercise strategies got a lot of attention at the conference - exercise is something that still needs to be carefully planned even with the latest AID systems.

Yet again we heard that there is a gender gap in diabetes research and care. On the one hand, we heard AID systems' autocorrections are helping to smooth out hormone induced blood sugar fluctuations during monthly cycles, but on the other, we know that algorithms are gender neutral and operating reactively to this, not proactively. Could we do even better if we factor in monthly cycles to the algorithms calculating our insulin doses? Kudos to Dawn Adams as well for banging the drum for more research into women with diabetes and the menopause (something else that messes up women's blood sugars).

Hardware and software innovations were interesting but not relevant to me. New small pumps like the Twiist and the Kaleido are not coming to the UK for at least another year or two. On the software side I was intrigued by all the talk about AI driven decision support systems - I'd love to have a digital companion that suggests when I might need to change things in my diabetes routine. For now I'll stick with asking Claude to opine on my BG reports 😊 (it actually does a pretty good job).

3. And we're still working on novel therapies and a cure

As for all the research into beta cell therapies and implanted devices, I'm excited that the work is going on to find the next frontier of treatment but I am not holding my breath for any of that to become widely available in the short to medium term. 

I'm happy for the foreseeable future to do my best with my CGM, my pump and the algorithm helping me while I'm busy doing other things and making small changes available to me today to live well for a long time with T1D. 

For anyone interested in diving deeper into any of these topics, the ATTD conference podcast is on Spotify. Unbelievably it is AI generated and while that sounds off putting it's really good!