From tinkering in your shed to an invention for the global market: this seems to be becoming reality for Robin Koops. His invention of the artificial pancreas gives diabetes patients a better life, a scientific study concludes.
The study with 75 diabetes patients was published in the scientific journal The Lancet. Patients indicated that they were much less bothered by their disease in their daily lives. “Great to read back of course,” says Koops. “I realize again that this is very special.”
Self made
It’s been a long road. In 1994, Koops was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Nearly 10 years later, he had an inspiration to ease life with diabetes. He started tinkering in his workshop with three friends. EenVandaag looked him up 5 years ago. “I thought: it can’t be that difficult to build an electronic pancreas. I really had to come up with something that wasn’t there yet,” Koops said at the time.
He had a diabetes nurse at the hospital. He helped him get the first supplies, such as pumps. They called the first version of the artificial pancreas ‘Robopump’ and it was the size of two laptops. Koops tested the device himself in the hospital with the help of his diabetes nurse.
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EenVandaag already visited Robin Koops in 2019
‘Not standing still’
In 2019, after 15 years of work, the size of the artificial pancreas had already shrunk to that of a thick smartphone. His company Inreda (the Swedish word for ‘setting’) Diabetics now had forty employees. Koops wore the device himself and never wanted to be without it again.
Since then? “We have not been sitting still,” Koops says now, 5 years later. “From October 2020, we started treating people, together with health insurers Menzis and CZ. That was a total of 125 people. The Menzis group of about 75 people also participated in this scientific research. These people are still involved. so that’s very positive.”
More research
He has also submitted an application for the promising care subsidy scheme (VeZo) and – because such an application takes a while – they have started developing a new device. “You still want to do things in the meantime.”
“We have also done studies on children and on people with pancreatic cancer who no longer have a pancreas.” Now into the study The Lancet has been published, it opens many doors, Koops emphasizes. “We can now work towards reimbursement for healthcare. As it looks now, I hope we will have that in place by the end of 2025.”
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‘Time flew by’
He is also doing well personally. Koops has been using the device for years and has regained 98 percent of his old life, he says. That life has now been devoted to the development of the artificial pancreas for 20 years: “That time has actually flown by.”
“You are constantly working on it and take it step by step. It gives you a lot of energy. And yes, it is a long road, but it is a road that you have to take. It is a good thing that I did not know in advance how That would be. But I always started it.”
Lots of skepticism
Koops finds it ‘fantastic’ that a study now proves that the artificial pancreas works. “Over the years there has of course been a lot of skepticism about what we do. But at the moment there is also a lot of enthusiasm. There are people working in hospitals who are very enthusiastic about working with this and that is very nice to see.”
It is above all a nice refutation of skepticism, says Koops, who has come to know the scientific world and healthcare well. Until you have these kinds of results, people will remain skeptical, he knows. “That is sometimes right. But sometimes it is also negative, without reason. There is sometimes disbelief that this really works.”
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Difficult world
5 years ago Koops already said that the medical world is difficult to enter with such an invention. And that is still difficult: “If you have a company with new ideas, it is difficult to stay in it. Especially because the established order keeps its doors very closed. They have their own business and are not interested in new things. “
“There are also physicians who are sometimes skeptical about this for various reasons, that’s fine. That’s how the world works,” he says. “But that’s also why things take so long. Every time you encounter a problem, you solve it and move on to the next problem. If you keep doing that, you’ll make it into this world.”
‘Now really fly the flag’
That is why this study is so valuable, Koops believes. “You see the big difference with the treatments that are currently available. Especially the medical results and also in combination with the quality of life that people experience. That is unique.”
“Now if someone is skeptical, we can say, ‘First, read this study from cover to cover.’ The doctor is happy, the patient is happy and now we have to make sure that the insurer is happy. And then there are no more obstacles. In 2013, I was sitting on The world is spinning and Matthijs said: ‘Now the flag can go out!’ But if I had to fly the flag, I would really fly it now.”
Never quite ready
And Koops sometimes notices in everyday life that the patient is happy. “The device was in the medical museum in Leiden and at one point someone came after me in the city. He had spontaneously bought a huge bouquet of flowers and gave them when we were in a restaurant, as a thank you for the invention. Then I realize you, just like today actually, that what you have done is special.”
That’s where Koops gets his motivation to continue. From that, and from his artificial pancreas of course: “It really feels great to have my life back. And this project? It is actually never completely finished. There remain areas for improvement. Refining and reducing the device, or making it suitable for the blind. It is always evolving and there are many challenges.”
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2024-03-05 15:06:51
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