Thiruvananthapuram: Professional dancer and founder-director of Diabesties Foundation Jazz Sethi has become the first user of Do-It-Yourself Artificial Pancreas (DIYAP) in the country.
Daughter of billiards player Geet Sethi, Jazz has been living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 13. DIYAP is the result of the #WeAreNotWaiting movement launched by tech-savvy members of the diabetes community.
Jazz became the first user of DIYAP in India following an experiment by Dr Jyothydev Kesavadav of Thiruvananthapuram, Dr Banshi Saboo of Ahmedabad, and Dr Partha Kar of the United Kingdom. The successful experiment has been published in the medical journal, Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews.
The DIYAP continuously monitors the glucose level and maintains the acceptable blood sugar level, which improves lives of diabetes patients.
DIYAP, however, is unregulated and unapproved, and “is perceived with great circumspection by healthcare professionals,” according to an article, The Do-It-Yourself Artificial Pancreas: A Comprehensive Review, by Dr Jothydev Kesavadev and others.
