Sugar Control- Post it ideation

post it sugar control ideation

After Performing basic ideation with post it notes I move on to explore further with more detailed design ideation- focusing on segments of these raw ideas.

After exploring this area I will move on to my third area of ‘Integrated delivery and monitoring’.

Strategic & Technical Consulting discussion

stc

Had a great phone call this morning with STC. One of the directors of Strategic and Technical Consulting himself has a unique form of diabetes. Was also useful to briefly discuss sterility and hygiene within the pharmaceutical product manufacturing environment. Brian has agreed to follow up discussions and opportunities to review designs, concept and ideations. This will be useful as it will consider both perspectives of consumer and medical manufacturing perspectives.

Diabetes kit- post it ideation

Post it ideation- diabetes kit

I have started to make far greater break downs of ideation looking into my three main focus areas- Kit/ improved funciton, Controlling sugar, integrated delivery and monitoring. Above is an early sample of some kit composition thoughts and ideas. I will be repeating the process of 1) Post it ideation 2)Sketch + model development and 3) possible cad development for further communication. This will be repeated  with each focus area. Today I also made great developments contacting people for further primary research opportunities. I am greatly looking forward to my thoughts and concepts to be able to be briefly discussed and reviewed by professionals in the industry as well as diabetes patients.

Insulin Pump tube Measurements

pump tube measurements

tube measurements poll

I discovered a poll on Diabetes Daily  that provided peoples opinions on the different ranges of insulin pump tube lengths available.

Reflection: The shorter tube length is clearly supported more than the others however comments on the forum still showed interesting thoughts and considerations.. such as when you change clothes sometimes it may be easier to have a longer tube. People also stated their heights and said the smaller tube was not a problem even though they were very tall.

Insulin pump models- Experience

Pump Models

I created 1:1 scale foam models of the Animas pump (representing the average insulin pump form) and the Omnipod version 1 and 2. My plan is to wear the pumps for a week to experience how a diabetes patient feels. This will help me consider how they interact with their environment, get changed, wash, sleep and many more scenarios.

Visit Newcastle Diabetes Clinic

glass texture heads
3 glass faces
glass heads side

I visited The Newcastle Diabetes Centre (NE4 6BE) . I met with a Clinic Sister Nurse who was very kind and interested in the project! I was able to analyse the existing pumps supported by the NHS that they provide their patients. It was a really great opportunity to be able to interact with the pumps and get a greater understanding of their sizing, how they work and are interacted with. I managed to test the Freestyle Libre system and study the software interface of the controller. This is really useful to aid in the consideration of functionality of whatever I may design

Reflection:  The sizing of the Omnipod although I had pre visualised the dimensions was far smaller than I had imagined. I provided the Sister Nurse with my contact details and she seemed positive to connect me with some medical professionals in the industry. I look forward to further discussion and insights on my design ideation.

Kit Ideation

Diabetes kit sketchesToday I began sketching and thinking about three basic routes I plan to develop. These are  ‘Kits or function’, ‘Controlling Sugar’ and ‘integrated delivery and monitoring’ .

Reaching Out

Today has been a day of organising and emails. I was connected to a lady who has a daughter with diabetes. We had a brief phone call. I was informed of her thoughts on the pump ( Medtronic 640G) system her daughter uses as well as her brief thoughts on competitors devices such as the ‘Omnipod’. This was a very insightful discussion and hopefully we can follow up on email and I can gather further research and discuss further.