Closed-loop glucose and/or insulin control system

1. A method comprising:

receiving a signal representative of a measurement value entered at an operator interface;

receiving signals representative of blood glucose sensor measurements obtained subsequent to receipt of the signal representative of the measurement value; and

executing instructions on a special purpose computing apparatus to:

compute one or more commands to a delivery system based, at least in part, on the received signals representative of the blood glucose sensor measurements; and

determine a maximum duration following entry of the measurement value until initiation of an alert to an operator based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more computed commands.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maximum duration to be based, at least in part, on the measurement value.

3. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising executing the instructions on the special purpose computing apparatus to determine the maximum duration based, at least in part, on a signal representative of a measured rate of change in blood glucose of a patient.

4. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the one or more computed command to the delivery system comprise one or more proportional, plus integral, plus derivative (PID) commands based, at least in part, on the signals representative of the blood glucose sensor measurements.

5. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising executing the instructions on the special purpose computing apparatus to:

determine the maximum duration based, at least in part, on whether a glucose bolus was infused to a patient contemporaneously with receipt of the signal representative of the measurement value.

6. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising further executing the instructions on the special purpose computing apparatus to determine the maximum duration based, at least in part, on one or more signals representative of a measured rate of change in blood glucose of a patient.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the entered measurement value to comprise a blood glucose sample measurement value.

8. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising generating the alert as a callback alert message to an attendant.

9. The method of claim 8 , and further comprising shortening the maximum duration based, at least in part, on a forecasted blood glucose level, proximity of a blood glucose level to limits of a target blood glucose range or proximity of the blood glucose level to hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic warning limits, or a combination thereof.

10. An apparatus comprising:

an operator interface to receive entry of an input value representative of a measurement value;

a blood glucose sensor to provide signals representative of blood glucose sensor measurements obtained from a patient;

and

one or more processors to:

compute one or more commands to a delivery system based, at least in part, on signals representative of blood glucose sensor measurements obtained from the blood glucose sensor subsequent to entry of the input value; and

determine a maximum duration following entry of the measured value until initiation of an alert to an operator based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more computed commands.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the maximum duration to be determined based, at least in part, on the measurement value.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to determine the maximum duration based, at least in part, on a signal representative of a measured rate of change in blood glucose of the patient.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 ,

wherein the computed one or more commands comprise one or more proportional, plus integral, plus derivative (PID) commands based, at least in part, on the signals representative of blood glucose sensor measurements.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to:

determine the maximum duration further based, at least in part, on whether a glucose bolus was infused to a patient contemporaneously with entry of the input value representative of the measurement value.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to determine the maximum duration further based, at least in part, on one or more signals representative of a measured rate of change in blood glucose of a patient.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the measurement value to comprise a blood glucose sample measurement value.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to generate a callback alert message to an attendant at an instance prior to expiration of the maximum duration.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to determine an instance prior to expiration of the maximum duration based, at least in part, on a forecasted blood glucose level, proximity of a blood glucose level to limits of a target blood glucose range or proximity of the blood glucose level to hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic warning limits, or a combination thereof.

19. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the maximum duration to be further based, at least in part, on an indication of a predetermined predisposition for hypoglycemia in a patient.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the one or more processors to be further adapted to obtain the indication of the predetermined predisposition for hypoglycemia in the patient from one or more entries to the operator interface or an indication received from a remote database to be accessible by the apparatus over an electronic data communication network, or a combination thereof.