by Adam Brown and Alexander Wolf

Twitter Summary: #CWDFFL15 conference features amazing exhibit hall, #diabetes advocacy #Masterlab, and of course inspiring kids w/ #T1D. Our round up of top tweets!

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One of our favorite conferences of the year is the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life Conference in Orlando. It’s always heartwarming to see many young people with diabetes and their families come together to share their experiences and inspiration. Many kids, teens, parents, grandparents, and extended families have met up with each other outside of these conferences over the years – making friends for life, indeed! While this meeting always fills us with hope, it also serves as a reminder of the many challenges that come with managing diabetes, especially for children. Friends for Life offers an incredible opportunity for those in this community to come together and support each other – and we give big thanks to all those who make it possible.

The diaTribe team has put together a round up of some of the top updates and tweets from this year’s conference (#CWDFFL15). Check back tomorrow for even more soon, and be sure to follow @diaTribeNews and the #CWDFFL15 hashtag for the latest updates!

On a particularly exciting note, Dr. Ed Damiano of the Bionic Pancreas group revealed a prototype dual-hormone (insulin + glucagon) device (photos below!), with the clever name “iLet” (think, pancreatic “islets”). The current prototype features a touchscreen interface (designed by the brilliant Tidepool team), chambers for both insulin and glucagon, built-in Dexcom and control algorithm integration, and wireless CGM calibration via a paired blood glucose meter (so you cannot mis-enter the meter value). It’s a major improvement over the current research platform, which requires two pumps and a Dexcom receiver connected to a phone. Dr. Damiano hopes to improve the iLet by making it smaller and enhancing the touchscreen over the next nine months; it will ideally be used in a human factors study with a custom-designed infusion set in 2016. The hope is for a pivotal study to take place across the United States from early 2017 to early 2018, and an FDA review to overlap from late 2017 to late 2018. It’s an ambitious timeline requiring many things to go right, though it means the device could be available as soon as late 2018 or early 2019. Dr. Damiano and his team received thunderous applause (there must’ve been 300 people in the audience – absolutely packed, wall-to-wall), and a massive line immediately formed in the exhibit hall to play with the device.

We absolutely love that each year, Dr. Damiano delivers major Bionic Pancreas updates at this meeting, which is 100% patients, patient advocates, and families. He also tends to be willing to stay long into the night answering questions and serving as the much-loved faculty that he’s been for so many years.

Dr. Ed Damiano unveils a commercial prototype, dual-chamber Bionic Pancreas!

More iLet #BionicPancreas screens: Glucagon burst, menu screen. Will have BG meter w/ wireless cgm cal #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/ARc9Mn7S4Z — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

Where will #BionicPancreas pivotal study take place? How about all over the U.S.! #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/gWnhy8eUK0 — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

The Friends For Life exhibit hall never disappoints!

Excited to the enter the exhibit hall at #CWDFFL15! pic.twitter.com/0g4H9Vay9P — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 8, 2015

This is the question we're asking at #CWDFFL15! Love all the responses! pic.twitter.com/nYtfSOWmBQ — Amer. Diabetes Assn. (@AmDiabetesAssn) July 9, 2015

More cure research lab fun at our booth #601. Check out all these mini scientists! #DRILabKid #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/eurlvTWI1n — Diabetes Research (@Diabetes_DRI) July 9, 2015

Super creative injection rotation aid from BD - cool! Reminder to avoid lipohypertrophy #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/qhEQjgLBxy — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

Visit @sierrasandison at #CWDFFL15 in booth #211 10am-12 today for a signing of her new book! Event for 12 and up. pic.twitter.com/uIOn8MrshE — Tandem Diabetes Care (@TandemDiabetes) July 9, 2015

The #CWDFFL15 exhibit hall just closed after a wonderful few days with children with #diabetes and their families! pic.twitter.com/tnbcryhRIv — Medtronic Diabetes (@MDT_Diabetes) July 10, 2015

A Nightscout installation workshop showed us an easy way to remotely monitor CGM on the Pebble Watch!

Just Setup "Simple CGM" @NightscoutProj Pebble Watchface w/ Dexcom share app in five minutes. Wireless, Pebble=$99 pic.twitter.com/R9dvWwnN2Z — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 8, 2015

Adam Brown spoke to teens, sharing “Ten Tips for Living well with Type 1”

Honored to present my 10 tips for living well with type 1 to the @cwdiabetes teens here at #CWDFFL15. Pics coming! pic.twitter.com/7vnbh69JOD — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

"Nobody ever told me managing my blood sugar now would help me NOW" - @asbrown1 at #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/BgeA1dnczC — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

"What are your land mines? What makes your blood sugars explode?" - @asbrown1 asks teens at #CWDFFL15 pic.twitter.com/bHGkDEiWRK — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

.@asbrown1 at #CWDFFL15 says LEARN in any way you can! Use your resources to learn more about your #diabetes pic.twitter.com/6W6ufTf0K9 — diaTribe (@diaTribeNews) July 9, 2015

Some #T1D celebs made it out for the conference!

Headed to Orlando for @cwdiabetes #CWDFFL15 with @novonordiskus! Always a fun time... hope to see you there!! — Charlie Kimball (@racewithinsulin) July 8, 2015

Seb Sasseville gives closing keynote at #CWDFFL15 about climbing Everest and trekking across Canada. -MH pic.twitter.com/KeOTnQzbRv — DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) July 10, 2015

@NickJonas was there in spirit…

Diabetes Hands Foundation’s #MasterLab brought together diverse speakers and discussions on advocacy

Getting ready to start day TWO of #MasterLab. Check out this highlight reel of yesterday: https://t.co/bsTBige0C7 — Diabetes Hands Fndn (@diabeteshf) July 8, 2015

You can't let a good idea only live in your head. @txtngmypancreas at #MasterLab talking about YOUR great idea. pic.twitter.com/LLkQD9Sjqq — Scott K. Johnson (@scottkjohnson) July 7, 2015