University project

[ProjectWork]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is not welcome here but I wanted to ask a quick question. I'm doing a university project where we have to come up with a piece of biotechnology and essentially sell it to a panel of experts Dragons Den style. I must stress that this is most likely not going to be turned in to an actual product and is just a theoretical exercise.

One of our product ideas is a small patch which could be placed discreetly somewhere visible and provide a visual warning if your blood sugar goes above or below the normal range or in to a dangerous range. The idea being it would act as a small, non-invasive CGM style device that essentially delivers a warning if your glucose is getting in to a problematic range.

We know that this product is not as useful as a fully fledged CGM, it wouldn't offer continual tracking of blood glucose concentration, it would essentially fulfill the alarm feature that many CGMs have but in a visual manner. We thought it would offer peace of mind to those who worry about their blood glucose or are anxious about hypos or hypers. We also thought that it may be useful for children who do not recognise the symptoms of these events before they occur so parents or teachers could recognise what may be about to occur before it does and help as required.

We believe what can make this product more attractive than a regular CGM is the price point, we believe that this could be marketed for at most £350 a year which is significantly cheaper than actual CGMs.

I just wanted to ascertain whether or not you, the people suffering from all types of this condition would find this product useful or know people who would. If you could take the time to answer it would be greatly appreciated. I know this is probably very abnormal and may be removed by the mods, if it's in the wrong place I apologise.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[EllieM]

I would find it useful, particularly for hypos. But honestly, if it's going to use the same technology as a cgm, I would definitely pay the extra to have a cgm. (Personally, I have developed an allergic reaction to the libre so it no longer works for me, otherwise I would be willing to self fund it.)

The advantage of a cgm is that you can see the trends, so that you know whether a single figure is trending up or down, and hence whether to treat it. Would you be able to set the alarm to go off at, say 4.5? That might be very useful for drivers who really need to know if they are going into danger territiry. (Though I'm pretty sure the licensing authority wouldn't recognise it as a valid safety feature, it would still be very helpful if it worked.)

And an audible alarm might be better, because you wouldn't have to keep checking it.

 

[Antje77]

non-invasive CGM style device that essentially delivers a warning if your glucose is getting in to a problematic range.

If this hypothetical device would be non-invasive, what would be the hypothetical technology behind it to sense that you're going low in time to warn?
I wonder because current (invasive) CGM's have a time lag allowing for a hypo to be there before CGM knows. If you know of a non invasive way to catch hypo's in real time that would be a major thing.

 

[EllieM]

I wonder because current (invasive) CGM's have a time lag allowing for a hypo to be there before CGM knows. If you know of a non invasive way to catch hypo's in real time that would be a major thing.

Apparently dogs can be trained to detect hypos by smell? Maybe you could have a sensor to do the same thing? But I agree, a real time hypo alert would be a truly massive thing, let alone a non non-invasive one.

I must stress that this is most likely not going to be turned in to an actual product and is just a theoretical exercise.

Just curious, is this a product that could theoretically be produced if you had the resources (ie the technology is feasible) or just a wish list (couldn't be created even if you had the resources.)?

 

[Seacrow]

Wouldn't even mind if it needed a needle. Something I could just stick on my forearm and glance at if I feel a little off without going through the whole stick the finger use the test kit, or dig out the monitor to scan. My consultant would be happy that ALL the glucose highs were being caught.

 

[Emile_the_rat]

Well to me this does not sound like a new product, and I see some problems with this product.

To have a business idea you have to offer something you can’t get else were.

A few, if not all CGMs already have a function to warn you with a beeping sound if you go low or high, so what is the different between a normal CGM with this function and your product other than the price-point?

Many places with good health care system get diabetic supplies for free, and price won’t be a problem or downside in that context.

My first thought is; this «expert panel» or examinator might ask why this product is better then a regular CGM, or if it is offer something different from a regular CGM.

You also say about your device, «it wouldn’t offer continual tracking of blood glucose», I guess this is an argument to decrease price? This is the thing I found most problematic with this product, because it won’t work in real life.

The device has to be able to track blood glucose continual to warn the pasient of hypo or hypers.

One disadventage with not having continual blood sugar tracking is; the patient has to do some sort of manual action to get a reading of the blood. And this reading will only show your blood sugar at the choosen test time.

In practice this requers for the patient to be lucky enough to check his or her blood sugar at the moment of a hypo or hyper, to make it possible for the device to even warn the pasient. But then the whole point with this idea would be gone, because you already know your blood sugar at the moment of testing.

I see some flaws with this idea, and hope I don’t discourage you. Just hope I can give some insight and maybe be a little bit constructive.

The idea of a cheaper sensor, or help people with hypoglycemic unawareness, or fear of hyperglycemia is good. But the device has to track continual to be able to do that, so then you have to work around how this can be cheaper than a regular CGM, and if that arguement alone is enough for a «theoratical expert» to be interessted to invest in your product. Because as I understand, the exam or exercise is to sell a product for a panel of experts, and to do that the product has to be convincing and unique

Of course people here might be more critic, because well, it is a part of our regular life. But for all I know, the examinator might not be that well educated on this choosen subject, so he might not see all the flaws. But do not bet on, the safest to do on any exam is to think through every single aspect, because that is what you do to get an A. You have to be able to show that nothing is excluded

Well good luck on the product and cheers Think it’s cool that you’ve choosen this subject

 

[kitedoc]

Hi @ProjectWork, With self-interest fully in sight, I would be interested in something quite different.
With insulin pumps we use a needle insert device to inject a needle under the skin. The metal needle part is withdrawn leaving a plastic cannula under the skin either at about a 30 degree or 90 degree angle attached to a plastic disc on the skin.
For various reasons the plastic cannula under the skin can become bent and this affects the amount of insulin being infused under the skin. Unfortunately obstruction alarms on the pump do not often detect this degree of bending/kinking and the first indication of something wrong may be some hours later when high BSLs are noted.
The problem is that whereas someone on injections rather than a pump the long acting injection injected provides a reservoir of insulin in the person's body which will last say 12 to 36 hours or longer depending on what that insulin is and when it was administered.
With use of the pump, the reservoir of insulin is in the pump and the short acting insulin under the skin has a duration of action of maybe 5 hours or less.
So the only way to deal with an unexplained high BSL, where no other cause can be quickly determined, is to replace the needle insert port.
Imagine a device that could detect the status of the plastic cannula under the skin ? ultrasound readings from two or three axes by placing the gadget angled inwards from the edge of the plastic disc and using two or three placements? I realise that the device is likely to be expensive without some development by maybe it could be used in conjunction with the power and hardware of a mobile phone??
The other less complex device might be one that detects whether insulin is leaking upwards from the cannula under the skin to under the adhesive patch which holds the plastic disc in place. When the leakage is greater the wetness would be noted but not early on.
Perhaps this above device could be combined with one that detects when a needle port has detached from the skin. In sweaty conditions with high temperatures and humidity the sticky patch can detach and this may not be noticed for sometime particularly if one is distracted by physical activity.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Best Wishes with your project.

 

[ProjectWork]

Hi guys,

Thanks to all of you for taking the time and giving me such great feedback. It's invaluable to hear from the people who we hope the product would help.

I think we see our unique selling point in the simplicity of the device and the low cost too. There is a lot of non-invasive cgm tech being developed already and we haven't gone that way due to the complexity of the technology and the ip side of things. We think that this product could be offered many times cheaper, it would continuously monitor your blood glucose, albeit with a lag time. It would be very low tech so it wouldn't record it unlike a real cgm, it would essentially give a visual response at specific concentration levels i.e. 4.5 and at a high point.

We think that theoretically the technology would work, again its more of a theoretical idea but has to have real science backing it up.

We just think that most of the market is focused on actual cgms and that we could probably find a niche among those who can't afford the expense of one, international markets that are less well funded and even national health services as it could save them money and act as a preventative treatment. Also it should be non-invasive which would hopefully appeal.

We hadn't really considered the insulin pump issue, we weren't particularly aware of it so thank you for that. Obviously that is something that could be addressed, I think we're quite set on some sort of cgm path at the moment.

Thanks again, answering on my phone at the moment so please forgive any spelling or grammar when I get on my computer I can give more detailed replies.

 

[ProjectWork]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is not welcome here but I wanted to get your opinion on an idea. I'm doing a university project where we have to come up with a piece of biotechnology and essentially sell it to a panel of experts Dragons Den style. I must stress that this is most likely not going to be turned in to an actual product and is just a theoretical exercise.

One of our product ideas is a small patch which could be placed discreetly somewhere visible and provide a visual warning if your blood sugar goes above or below the normal range or in to a dangerous range. The idea being it would continually monitor your blood glucose but in a low tech way, just providing visual cues when it started to go too high or too low.

We know that this product is not as useful as a fully fledged CGM, it wouldn't offer a way to view actual blood glucose concentration over time, it would essentially fulfill the alarm feature that many CGMs have but in a visual manner. We thought it would offer peace of mind to those who worry about their blood glucose or are anxious about hypos or hypers. We also thought that it may be useful for children who do not recognise the symptoms of these events before they occur so parents or teachers could recognise what may be about to occur before it does and help as required.

We believe what can make this product more attractive than a regular CGM is the price point, we believe that this could be marketed for at most £350 a year per patient which is significantly cheaper than actual CGMs and ideally we'd be looking at cheaper than that.

Essentially do you believe that such a device would be useful for type 2s or not? I think it could help control glucose levels and therefore have a long term health impact by avoiding periods at high or low levels of glucose.

I've already asked this question in the ask a question section of the forum but wanted to address type 2s specifically in this post. If you could take the time to answer it would be greatly appreciated. I know this is probably very abnormal and may be removed by the mods, if it's in the wrong place I apologise.

Thank you very much for your time

 

[Bluetit1802]

How do you propose to set the "too high" or "too low" levels? Would they be pre-set, or would the user be able to set their own?
If pre-set, what levels are you thinking of? I really do not think a pre-set level would be of any use at all. Each one of us has a different target band.

 

[ProjectWork]

It would be preset for a certain band of concentrations. A range could be offered of the most common ones quite easily. I'm unsure what levels we'd be using for the bands yet, we'd have to conduct some market research to decide on that. The tech would be able to address a wide range of concentration points so there aren't really any limits to the range we could target.

 

[Muneeb]

How would it work? To tell you its going down or up or its low or high would mean that it has to measure glucose levels. In that case it would be essentially doing what a cgm does but without the communication piece?

 

[Bluetit1802]

Thanks for the clarification, but I think you will find this aspect is extremely important and difficult to achieve. T2s have very different target bands depending on how they control their diabetes, their diet, their drugs, their personal preferences, and length of time since diagnosis. Target bands also change as control improves or as medication changes.

 

[ProjectWork]

Thanks for the feedback, it's very valuable. If we could address a wide range of target concentrations would it be viable? Would more general bands not be at all useful then? Just to indicate when your blood sugar is spiking above a specific conc or below a specific conc.

 

[DCUKMod]

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[DCUKMod]

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