Background

Diabetes patients may experience troubles regulating their blood sugar levels, partly because they are uncertain about the time of the latest intake and partly because they are uncertain about the size of the dose to be injected. This can cause important implications for the quality of life of diabetics. Studies have shown that diabetics can increase their self-confidence by having a facility that makes it easier for them to remember time and dose of the latest injection. With a growing group of people with dementia, relatives need to monitor if family members inject insulin as prescribed. There are a number of solutions on the market that can help diabetics to facilitate everyday routines and remember the time of the latest injection. Such solutions are, however, dependent on the producer of the insulin pen, and people with poor eyesight and memory may have trouble reading the display. Besides, they are very clinical in appearance, and large in comparison with the pens.

Vision

The vision of the project is to minimise the complications of diabetics by facilitating knowledge of the time of the latest insulin injection and an alarm that indicates the time of the next injection. This could improve the quality of life of patients, minimise uncertainty among relatives, and reduce public spending on admissions and sequelae. The vision is to develop a universal memory facility to insulin pens that breaks with the clinical design, but still provides diabetics with a better life by ensuring the necessary knowledge about the latest time of intake and the amount of dose - without adding extra work or more buttons.

Aims

The project aims to design and develop, in cooperation with Patient@home, partners, and people with diabetes, a prototype that can help diabetes patients remember the time of the latest injection and alert them when it is time for the next injection.