Why does it need to be a smartphone and why isn’t there a dedicated device for this?
Given the obvious costs and issues associated with a full-featured phone, it seems like this could be something like an old school pager (which could be smaller and much more durable).
They're using it to receive data from the continuous glucose monitor and to run Android APS, which is an open source closed loop 'artificial pancreas' system. Some pumps (like the Tandem T:slim X2) will receive data directly from the CGM, so you technically don't need a phone in that case - but a phone is still useful as it can constantly share blood glucose data with other people (in this case, probably the parents).
Seems like they ought to use a lower-level system. I hate to see the day when someone's smartphone-based pacemaker or whatever crashes or gets hacked and kills the person attached.
You could have a low power system like ESP32 or STM32 act as the artificial pancreas and transmit data to a smartphone over BT
The only blocker for a lot of these things to exist is just someone to make it. There is no money in it, the software is life and death sometimes, the total amount of users you can reach is world wide is probably like 2-3 million. The only stopper is just someone making it.
Regulation in the US makes single purpose devices basically impossible to justify from a cost perspective. Also, as the user, a commodity off the shelf device, which can do more than one thing (e.g. CGM and Pump from different manufacturers) is fantastic. +1 million better.
The Venn diagram of what the device needs vs what a cell phone has is so close, and the scale cell phones are made brings down their price so much, that a dedicated device would be more expensive, worse and more difficult to get.
I get that, which is why I suggested something pager-like as a concision, but that doesn’t really answer my question. Many devices can have connectivity while not being a phone. I’ve built a half dozen types of (non-human body) sensors for remote use with various radios, including LTE, and I can access them from anywhere.
Given the obvious costs and issues associated with a full-featured phone, it seems like this could be something like an old school pager (which could be smaller and much more durable).