If you had told me 12 years ago that we’d be here today, essentially building the components of what we hope will be the first DIY artificial pancreas system made using only commercially available hardware and open-source software… or having a meeting with the FDA to talk about open sourced systems like this … (or that there’d be a “we” doing it!)… I wouldn’t have believed you.

Today marks 12 years of living with diabetes. (Like everyone else, I wonder what to do on yet another diabetes anniversary – celebrate? Cry? Eat gluten-free cupcakes? All three things?) And interestingly, I’m almost at the one year mark of living with diabetes powered by #DIYPS.

When I was diagnosed, my blood glucose meter was bigger in all dimensions than the iPhone 6+.  Luckily, that’s changed, and my meter is now about the size of my Pebble smart watch – and that watch actually shows my my blood glucose readings from my CGM every 5 minutes.

Even better, in the last year, we’ve built a system that will not only give me a number, but help me track changes and push alerts so I can pay attention when needed…but otherwise live my life and not let diabetes get in the way of the things I actually want to be doing (running marathons, reading marathons, saving the world, etc.).

What hasn’t changed, though? My insulin pump. I’m pretty sure it’s a slightly different purple color than it was 11 or so years ago, but not much else has changed. For 11+ years I’ve been wanting:

• To be able to see (on the pump) a HISTORY of any temporary basal rates
• To be able to have “days of the week” programmable basal rates. (As you can imagine, my Tuesdays and Saturdays look a little different!)
• To be able to have “net IOB” calculated and displayed to reflect the true amount of insulin in my body

For 11 years, I didn’t question the lack of progress, much, though. That’s just the way it was. I imagined it would probably be this way until we got a cure for diabetes in (5 or insert your magical number here) years.

I’m glad this is no longer the way it is and that I have tools like #DIYPS. But I hope that medical device companies will get out of their rut and the way they’ve been doing innovation and business for eons and do better. Because what they’re doing right now is not good enough. And #wearenotwaiting.