IP Requirement: Emory IP

Experience Requirement:

– Mechanical Design

– Rapid Prototyping

A Low-Cost Self-Administered Insulin Device for Elderly Patients with Diabetes
Millions of people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) require insulin to live healthily. Everyone with T1DM needs insulin (“insulin dependent”), but a minority of people with T2DM are insulin dependent. Regardless of the type of diabetes, self-administering insulin can be a challenge, especially in the elderly.

There are multiple ways to store and administer insulin, and the total global market for insulin delivery devices is over $20B.1 Two of the most common are insulin pens and insulin vials with syringes.2 Pens are more expensive but easier to use. Both require patients to appropriately choose how much insulin they will inject and then manually inject themselves. Importantly, patients do make mistakes with insulin self-administration.

The consequences of injecting the wrong amounts of insulin can be life-threatening.3 Too much insulin causes low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which can lead to confusion, seizures, coma, and ultimately death (if untreated). Too little insulin may lead to patients developing very high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), which can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis, a severe and life threatening metabolic illness.

Elderly patients with diabetes are particularly vulnerable to insulin self-administration errors.4 For example, older people have many reasons to be visually impaired (e.g. near-sightedness, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts), making it hard to see how much insulin they are administering. Over years, diabetic patients often develop neuropathy in their feet and hands, making it difficult to manipulate a pen or syringe. Arthritis may also reduce older patients’ hand dexterity. And cognitive impairment from aging makes all kinds of medication management more difficult.

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and insulin pumps are one solution to this.5 Insulin pumps hold a reservoir of insulin and give insulin in response to measured blood sugar. However, they are expensive, especially for older folks with low incomes.

The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost device that helps impaired and elderly people with diabetes to self-administer insulin safely.

Sources:
BioSpace, 2024
Mayo Clinic, Diabetes Treatment
PMID: 26807006
PMID: 24615164
PMID: 29650803