Student Design Project for a Portable Insulin Cooler

[don_steel]

Hi everyone,

My name is Donald and I am studying Product Design Engineering at Strathclyde University. I have just started 4th year and we have to carry out an individual project based on a problem we have observed that we would like to try and solve.

My project idea was inspired by a friend who is studying Geography and was due to travel to Africa for 5 weeks over the summer as part of the research for her course. While preparing for her trip there were real concerns over whether she would actually make it because she struggled to find a suitable storage method for the insulin she wasn't currently using. She was eventually able to go after buying the Frio wallets however even these didn't quite fit her needs.

My idea is to design and develop a portable fridge type product that could use a rechargeable battery to store medication vials for people travelling or perhaps competing in sports competitions in countries with extreme climate conditions. The main focus of the product would be maintaining the integrity of the medication by keeping it cool and offering physical protection for the vials to offer the user peace of mind and allow them to enjoy their trip.

I am currently at the research stage and am just looking for some feedback from potential users to help justify the project by determining if insulin storage while travelling is a real concern. Whether they think this would be a good product and what sort of features they would look for in it ( e.g. storage capacity, extra compartments for paraphernalia, needle disposal etc).

Any feedback that you could give me would be a real help and would be much appreciated. (I did notice that another student had made a similar posting on here, I assure you I have copied their idea, this was genuinely a proposal I had submitted early in the summer and only seen that once I had started my own research. People on here seemed to be very helpful to him, sorry if I'm being repetitive now, but any help similar help would be great!)

Thanks a lot,

Don.

 

[sugar2]

Alas, I have not been lucky enough to travel anywhere hot for more than 2 weeks, so I have never needed such a product...whilst I was in Grenada for a week, I just stored my insulin in the fridge. I am not sure how common the requiremnt would be, so i would try and widen the scope a bit to include other medications, antibiotics etc etc? Good luck!

 

[goji]

Hi

This is a great idea. I could really do with a cooler like that. There would be a market for this over and above diabetics as I have other meds I take that need to be refrigerated (Florinef). If you could design one with room for a bottle of pills as well, then I'd buy it.

It would be great if you could design something that's low tech as well. For example, I like to go backpacking for months at a time. I often stay anywhere I can get a room and have stayed in tents and yurts. In some of these situations I have not had any access to a fridge or electricity. If you could create a Trevor Bayliss style wind-up rechargeable battery to power the cooler, that would be really great.

Size is an issue as if you're backpacking then you don't want to carry a hulking great fridge on your back.

Good luck with your project.

 

[MICKYMOO]

Hey,

I think you have a winning project idea. I have travelled extensively around south east asia and east africa and have had problems with keeping my insulin cool. This is generally a big problem while travelling long distances by local transport i.e. cattle truck (no joke!) getting from A to B in hot climates and also if staying in places where electricity is dodgy (generator only during certain hours of the night!) or non existant.

I have stayed on small remote islands/places in hot climates with intermittent electricity and my options were only to submerge my insulin in a bucket of iced water. Needless to say that after a week my insulin had gone off and my sugars were creeping higher and higher so I had to leave, go to mainland Indonesia (on that occasion) and get a fresh supply. A royal pain in the bum! If I had been using Glargine as a background insulin then like I do now it would have taken me even longer to realise what had happened. I only cottoned on to what was happening as I was using a cloudy suspension and it had crystallized!

Since that episode I have tried the frio wallets, but thought they were pretty rubbish and only really suitable for short journeys. They also start to smell if not dried out thoroughly after each use!! I then resorted to trying another contraption (can't remember the name of it) that is essentially a mini cooler of freezer based chemical ice packs surrounded by some kind of polystyrene foam that encases your pen & insulin. It works for much longer than the frio wallets but relies on you re-freezing the chemical packs. It is also very ugly and bulky so not the best for backpacking around!

I have always though there is a niche in the market for some kind of battery or small powered cooler for insulin for travellers. I have had to rent fridges in lower budget places in India so I could keep my insulin cool while there. Had a problem once using a shared fridge when travelling where my backup supply was stolen. Had to get replacement insulin again as all I had was the 2 cartridges in the pens I was using and they wouldn't have lasted the trip!

If you want any more info/ideas etc etc just post me back. I am intrigued to see what you come up with!

Micky

 

[tse]

Hi,

I agree with everyone. I think your project idea it will be successful for sure! As far as I know it doesn´t exist any fridge or cooler that has a rechargable battery.

My case it's a little bit different. I'm not diabetic but I'm on a treatment with HUMIRA which is for Crohn's disease. My medication has a little bit more restrictions because it has to be kept between 2 and 8 degrees, so I can´t use cooling bags because they can´t keep medication at this temperature, specially in high temperatures. And it's a very expensive medication and it's not easy to find in many countries.

Since I'm on this treatment I can´t do one of my biggest and most beloved hobbies: travel, the way I like to travel: backpacking, camping tent, trekkings, and travelling to Africa or Asia...So I would spend my money in a fridge:
- that can work without being plugged or at least for some hours
- that it can fit at least 4 to 5 humira pens, to be able at least to travel for a month
- light and small
- that keeps stable temperature between 2 and 8 degrees
- that can stay at extrem temperatures

I hope this info is helpful for your idea, and I really hope you can make it real! I'd love to be one of the first ones in trying it! If you need more info, don´t hesitate posting me back.