MIT engineers are dealing with an app that determines and quantifies food content, which can assist in carbohydrate counting for people with diabetes. Credit: MIT News, stock images
MIT engineers are working on a new kind of device that could improve the process of blood glucose measurement and insulin injection.
Before taking in a meal, lots of people with diabetes need to inject themselves with insulin. This is a time-consuming process that frequently needs approximating the carbohydrate content of the meal, drawing blood to determine blood sugar levels, and after that determining and delivering the right insulin dose.
Those steps, which typically need to be repeated for every meal, make it hard for numerous clients with diabetes to stick to their treatment regimen. A group of MIT researchers has actually now created a brand-new method to enhance the process and aid clients keep healthy glucose levels.
All-in-one device
Diabetes affects 34 million people in the United States and more than 400 million individuals worldwide. Patients with diabetes frequently use 2 types of insulin to manage their blood sugar level levels: long-acting insulin, which helps control glucose levels over a 24-hour period, and short-acting insulin, which is injected at mealtimes. Patients initially determine their blood glucose levels with a glucose meter, which requires puncturing their finger to draw blood and placing a drop of blood onto a test strip. They should also approximate how numerous carbs are in their meal and combine this information with their blood sugar levels to compute and inject the proper insulin dose.
Existing technologies such as continuous blood glucose screens and insulin pumps can assist with some parts of this process. These devices are not commonly readily available, so most clients should rely on finger pricks and syringes.
” Every day, lots of patients need to do this complicated treatment a minimum of three times,” Huang says. “The primary goal of this task is to attempt to help with all of these intricate procedures and likewise to remove the requirement for multiple devices. We likewise utilized a smartphone electronic camera and deep knowing to create an app that recognizes and quantifies food content, which can help in carb counting.”
The research group devised 2 different kinds of “all-in-one” devices, both of which include the brand-new mobile phone app. Patients first take an image of the food, and the app can then estimate the volume of food and also the quantity of carbs, based upon nutrient information from a USDA database.
The very first all-in-one device that the researchers designed consolidates numerous of the existing tools that clients utilize now, consisting of a lancet for drawing blood and glucose test strips. Once the blood sugar measurement is taken, the device communicates the details to the mobile phone app via Bluetooth, and the app calculates the right insulin dose. The gadget also includes a needle that injects the appropriate amount of insulin.
” What our gadget is doing is automating the procedures to puncture the skin, collect the blood, determine the glucose level, and do the calculation and insulin injection,” Huang states. “The client no longer needs a separate lancing device, glucose meter, and insulin pen.”
Numerous of the parts included in this device are already FDA-approved, but the gadget has actually not been checked in human patients. Tests in pigs revealed that the system could properly determine glucose levels and give insulin.
A single jab
For their 2nd gadget, the scientists wished to develop a system that would need just one needle prick. To achieve that, they designed an unique glucose sensing unit that might be incorporated into the exact same needle that is used for insulin injection.
“The concept would be that if we can integrate the glucose sensing unit straight onto the surface of the insulin delivery needle, we would just require one stick for the patient, which lessens pain and also makes the entire process easier to administer,” You states.
The scientists created a versatile electronic sensor that can be connected to the needle and measure glucose levels in the interstitial fluid, simply below the surface of the skin. As soon as the needle permeates the skin, it takes between 5 and 10 seconds to determine the glucose levels. This information is sent to the mobile phone app, which determines the insulin dose and delivers it through the placed needle.
In tests in the pigs, the scientists revealed that they could precisely determine glucose levels with this system, which glucose levels dropped after insulin injection.
Due to the fact that this device uses an unique kind of glucose sensing unit, the scientists anticipate that it will need more development to get to a point where it might be tested in clients. They have declared patents on both of the systems explained in the brand-new research study and wish to work with companies to additional develop them.
The research was funded by the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering and Brigham and Womens Hospital.
Patients with diabetes typically utilize 2 types of insulin to control their blood sugar levels: long-acting insulin, which assists control glucose levels over a 24-hour period, and short-acting insulin, which is injected at mealtimes. Patients initially measure their blood glucose levels with a glucose meter, which requires pricking their finger to draw blood and positioning a drop of blood onto a test strip. They need to also approximate how many carbs are in their meal and integrate this info with their blood glucose levels to calculate and inject the correct insulin dosage.
The very first all-in-one device that the researchers created consolidates many of the existing tools that patients use now, consisting of a lancet for drawing blood and glucose test strips. When the blood glucose measurement is taken, the device communicates the info to the mobile phone app via Bluetooth, and the app calculates the proper insulin dose.
” Any intervention that makes it easier for patients to receive treatment can have an enormous impact, because there are multiple barriers that have to do with time, trouble, learning, or dexterity and training,” states Giovanni Traverso, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Womens Hospital. “If were able to conquer those barriers through the execution of new engineering solutions, it will make it simpler for clients to receive that treatment.”
Traverso and his coworkers designed 2 various devices that can simplify the procedure of computing and injecting the right dose of insulin. One, which integrates many of the existing enter a single gadget, could be used in clients in the near future. Their second prototype incorporates versatile electronic devices onto the surface area of a needle so that the blood measurement and insulin shipment can occur through the same needle. This could eventually make the process of managing diabetes a lot more streamlined.
MIT postdocs Hen-Wei Huang and Sean You, and visiting students Luca Di Tizio and Canchen Li, are the lead authors of the paper, which appears in the Journal of Controlled Release.