The Scientists who Cracked Diabetes Dr. Philip Moshe and Eran Atlas are possibly the most influential duo in the Diabetes world over the past two decades as the developers of the AI algorithms behind Medtronic's artificial pancreas and world's first Endocrinology digital expert
By Josh Horowitz •
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Diabetes is a chronic disease that becomes a form of living. This demanding lifestyle is imposed on millions of young and adult patients worldwide. An estimated 463 million adults currently live with diabetes (9.3% of the world's adult population). The total number is predicted to rise to 578 million (10.2%) by 2030 and to 700 million (10.9%) by 2045.
There are hundreds of technological solutions that claim to help Diabetes patients, but statistics show that despite the plethora of Diabetes tech, circa 50% of all patients globally cannot achieve the glucose balance that all Diabetics fight for on a daily basis.
These numbers are staggering.
Moreover, research data shows that the Diabetes technology influence on Diabetics' well-being is marginal at best. Seems like nothing to-date can replace the level of care provided by frequent consultations with an expert Endocrinologist who intimately knows the patient. However, the harsh reality is that there are not nearly enough Endocrinologists ad associated practitioners that can deal with the ever-increasing tsunami of Diabetics flooding the modern world. In the U.S. alone there are estimated 41,000 adult patients on every Endocrinologist (!) requiring continuous care across 4 annual physician-visits in average, as a bare minimum.
Dr. Moshe Philip and Eran Atlas have formed "DreaMed Diabetes AI" over a decade ago in order to solve exactly this deficiency. They have researched a possible AI-driven "Pancreatic Brain' that will enable patients the continuous ad delicate balancing act of insulin control.
Over 13 years of clinical research in collaboration with some of the top medical institutions in the U.S., the EU and Israel, have given birth to the technology that uses real Artificial Intelligence algorithms to mimic both the "Logic' of a human pancreas as well as the logic and experience of a human Endocrinologist.
The results are borderline miraculous. Their algorithms were implemented by the global medical-device giant, Medtronic, in their artificial pancreas insulin pump (Minimed™ 640G) which is the first and only of its kind providing continuous glucose control to patients worldwide. In addition, DreaMed's Diabetes Advisor™ has recently received its 4th FDA clearance as a clinical decision support system (CDSS) enabling Endocrinologists to handle a significantly larger number of both Type I, and Type II Diabetes patients (by orders of magnitude). Their novel AI-based digital healthcare system aims to revolutionize the Diabetes world by providing expert Endocrinologist care to millions of patients worldwide that have no such access today.
The FDA treads very lightly and very carefully around the language that frames such medical advancements. They are rightfully concerned for AI-based medical systems to be addressed as a "potential replacement' for human physicians. Nevertheless, DreaMed's algorithms and technology have been clinically proven over the past decade to provide a high-quality, endocrinologist' expert advice to patients, after it has successfully added Pancreas-like "management' capabilities to artificial insulin pumps.
The scientific and medical work performed by Dr. Philip Moshe and Eran Atlas have been, and still is, affecting millions of lives of children and adults, but most of all, they have proven that in the 21st century, we are no longer limited by the human or biological factors when medical standard-of-care is on the line. With all the caution and disclaimers in the world, we dare say that the fabulous DreaMed team, have managed to build world's first AI-driven "Digital Endocrinologist' as well as the world's first algorithm to mimic the Pancreas way of personalized insulin management – where both achievements – have the potential to change Diabetics' way of life as we know it.
