Shannon Lantzy, PhD on Accelerating Innovation in AID and Why Diabetes Tech Cannot Ship Like Angry Birds

An interview with Shannon Lantzy, PhD about why diabetes technology should be judged by how many “spoons” it gives back, not only by A1C and time in range. We dig into FDA decision-making, cybersecurity, faster software validation, and where AI can truly help without creating unsafe risk. 

• Shannon’s path from math and NASA consulting into FDA-focused decision science 
• Why patient preferences can change how benefit risk gets weighed 
• Cybersecurity realities for connected body-worn diabetes devices 
• Spoon Theory as a practical model for chronic disease burden 
• Spoonshot as a push to speed up safe medtech software throughput 
• The real bottlenecks: validation, integration, interoperability testing 
• Why medtech cannot ship updates like consumer apps 
• Four ways to think about AI in medical devices 
• Unmet needs: personalization for pregnancy, young children, alarm tolerance, and affordability 
• Why explicit tolerances and clear validation define AI’s limits