Technologies in Diabetes–the Ninth ATTD Yearbook

The autumn of 2016 was special for all that went along the way of diabetes technology: the first (hybrid) closed-loop finally reached people with diabetes for routine use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided to approve it without seeing data from a randomized, controlled clinical trial, which speaks on its own about the urgency felt in the medical and regulatory community about finally delivering technology that will improve metabolic outcomes and hopefully at the same time reduce the burden of the disease. As always in human history, an important achievement is also a new beginning. Closed-loop insulin delivery is not a dream anymore, but the current reality evokes further dreams.

For the Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD) Yearbook, this is certainly a time for celebration. For nine years, it has diligently and faithfully followed the development of diabetes technology, persistently expressing the hope and determination to see people with diabetes using devices with closed-loop insulin delivery. All authors, and particularly associate editors of the ATTD yearbook, contributed to this important success, each in their own way. We have now reached a peak together, from which we have a much better view and a considerably more confident outlook.

The ATTD 2017 yearbook is therefore even stronger in its mission. The diabetes technology is maturing; we must perfect it and make it really accessible in day-to-day life for most people with diabetes. The health-care professionals must partner more than ever with innovators and manufacturers in the process of widespread implementation and continuous improvement of glucose sensors, insulin delivery algorithms, and insulin infusion devices. Furthermore, developing integrated care with affordable, connected, individualized management is an obvious priority, crucial also for people with type 2 diabetes, where comorbidity increases treatment challenges that are typically best addressed by technology. The development of large data platforms that include professional and patient-focused adviser algorithms will reduce the burden of type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes management for all involved.

The ATTD 2017 yearbook is fortunate for another reason: after decades of sluggish innovation in the type 1 diabetes insulin field, it finally witnesses and documents the arrival of a faster-acting insulin analogue with important potential for closed-loop insulin delivery. Moreover, adjunctive use of novel oral antidiabetic medicines recently proved beneficial in type 1 diabetes. The scope of tools we have available to personalize therapy is therefore broader and more efficacious.

Finally, people with diabetes have decided to take a more active role. Their impact on every stage of development, regulation, and implementation of advanced technology and treatments of diabetes is strongly felt and enormously welcome. We are significantly stronger together and substantially more likely to reach our common goal: to control diabetes with ease until we cure it.

We would like to thank our coauthors for their commitment and their hard work in writing their articles. We appreciate their most valuable contribution to the success of this Yearbook, which plays an important role in the ATTD mission.