The artificial pancreas developed here at UVA has earned a spot in STAT Madness, a bracket tournament to determine the year’s best innovations in science or medicine. And your votes will determine the winner.
The tournament works similarly to the NCAA basketball tournament. The winners of each round advance until only one remains. Go here to cast your ballot, and make sure to return for each subsequent round: https://www.statnews.com/feature/stat-madness/bracket/
Voting just opened as I write this, and so far it’s a tight race between the artificial pancreas and a breast cancer entry from MD Anderson.
The artificial pancreas, you may recall, was just approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. It automatically monitors and regulates blood sugar for people with diabetes, freeing them the painful daily ritual of needlesticks. For many people, it can be a life-changer.
Just making it into the tournament is an honor. The editors of the STAT health news site have already eliminated many nominees, so we are part of an elite crop of contenders.
This is the fourth tournament and our second appearance — a pretty impressive accomplishment when talking about the biggest and best biomedical innovations of a given year. Our first contender was a discovery from Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, suggesting an entirely new path to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s and the cognitive decline that comes with aging.
That entry did quite well, but let’s help the artificial pancreas go all the way!