When will we stop bleeding daily for our diabetes? Nobody knows. But despite years of struggling with the “non-invasive dream,” you can rest assured that scientists and designers have not given up trying.
I may have mentioned that we had a total of 16 entries in this year’s DiabetesMine Design Challenge that were concepts for new non-invasive glucose monitoring technologies — each one more visionary than the last. How to evaluate these creative designs based on a so-far-unsolvable medical enigma?
Despite having two experienced clinicians on our Judging Panel, we felt the need to call in the heavy artillery. We were fortunate to be able to enlist the help of legendary expert John Smith, who literally wrote the book on non-invasive monitoring technologies, which he published on the web a few years ago under the telling title “Hunting the Deceitful Turkey.”
John generously offered hours of his personal time to review the science behind each entry, and provide us feedback — which I’m sad to say contributed to the fact that none of them won. John confirmed that pretty much every approach was more vision than viable at this point. Several of the concepts had already been tried on patients and failed.
Nevertheless, the visions are uplifting, because if something like this could ever succeed, it would change the world of diabetes as we know it. A few of the non-invasive concepts we found most fascinating:
GlucoLux
- the first CGM that’s also a fashion statement -
Sugar Free Footwear
- A new kind of footwear for diabetic people -
GylcoGum
- “an affordable non-invasive rapid diabetes diagnostic gum” -
(submitted by PhD students in Bioengineering)
GlucaChute
- an “Implantable Hypo Device” -
(submitted by two medical device design engineers)
Implantable Emergency Hypoglycemia Treatment Device
SENSE
- a complex electromagnetic monitoring system -
(submitted by Berkeley PhD students)
Entry viewable here …
and
Non-Invasive Optical Blood Glucose Monitoring System
(Similar to what Oculir is developing)
Evidence of great minds at work. Thank you All!
Patient feedback, anyone?
Great visionaries.
I do wish and hope for non-invasive blood glucose testing.
My finger tips need the break.
I think the shoes are too cool. I’d get a pair.
riva
I’m sorry, but the Sugar Free shoes??? WTF? A 60 is considered normal? I feel quite faint at 60. And does anybody remember urine test strips? Yeah, this system is about that accurate…useless. My apologies to the designer, but I can see why this didn’t win. Although, I have to admit, the shoe design itself (not as a CGM) is an ok design.