Automatic monitoring systems for diabetes care use sensors inserted under the skin and attached directly to portable insulin pumps to provide greater treatment accuracy and convenience. Courtesy Ben Feldman, PhD, Abbott Diabetes Care.
Diabetes is on the rise. As a chronic disease, it places an enormous medical and economic burden on our society.
Patients with diabetes must constantly monitor and maintain their glucose level. This task can be challenging and has life-threatening implications.
Through the combined efforts of the chemical-engineering and biomedical communities, improved techniques for measuring blood glucose levels and administering insulin are being developed.
Glucose level monitoring
Recent innovations include
- Microanalytical techniques that require smaller blood samples,
- Continuous glucose monitors that are implanted beneath the skin, and
- Use of implanted microchips to control insulin addition.
Insulin injection
New advances include
- Automatic, continuous-infusion insulin injection pumps little larger than a cell phone, and
- Compact pens that combine the insulin container with the syringe.
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