The artificial pancreas is one of FDA’s Critical Path Initiatives, a program dedicated to accelerating the availability of much needed medical products. The Interagency Artificial Pancreas Working Group, a group of multi-disciplined scientists and clinicians from the FDA and NIH, was established to support this initiative. The goals of the Artificial Pancreas Initiative are two fold; to provide infrastructure for narrowing the gap between basic biomedical knowledge and clinical application of novel technologies, and to cross-fertilize and partner with stakeholders in order to identify and overcome the clinical and scientific challenges to the development of an artificial pancreas. Through collaborative efforts, such as this workshop, the group strives to develop innovative strategies to achieve their goals.

World-renowned experts will present information on key topics in the development of artificial pancreas during sessions that will be followed by roundtable discussions. Session topics will include:

• State-of-the-art design of closed-loop glycemic control systems

• Results of recently conducted clinical trials

• Clinical Trial design, including how to define success and failures of a closed-loop system

• Algorithms and in silico models

• Engineering challenges

• Patient considerations

• Metabolic monitoring

• Paths for developing a marketable closed-loop system

The agenda for this public workshop is available on the internet at http://www.blsmeetings.net/artificialpancreas08/agenda.pdf. For more information see the meeting webpage at http://www.blsmeetings.net/artificialpancreas08/intro.cfm.