Delivering new medical solutions for Type 1 diabetics
Fall 2018
Automating Insulin Delivery
Type 1 Diabetes impacts 1.25 million Americans every year, but every patient manages this disease in a different way. Each day, several times a day, patients must check their glucose levels, and administer insulin therapy. Through the use of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) and insulin pumps, some of the difficulty that comes along with adhering to the treatment of the disease can be alleviated.
Our corporate partner’s latest innovation in the T1 Diabetes space was a combined device (CGM + Pump). Despite the considerable benefit promised by the new product, patient adoption was limited, mainly due to behavioral and psychological barriers to adoption. Our research and solutioning focused on innovative methods to address these barriers.
Research
Interviews spanned across patients within various demographic in order to create a holistic understanding of the challenges and choices that patients are faced with.
Secondary research focused on existing studies and publications relevant to the T1 Diabetes space. In addition, a competitive analysis provided insight into the features provided by other products in the marketplace. This enriched our understanding of the patient motivations that may prompt the selection of another solution.
Detailed breakdown of research objectives and methodology
Pain points from interviews related to treatment methods and product selection
Patients are faced with four treatment methods to monitor glucose and deliver insulin
Insights & Opportunity Areas
Biohacking
Research uncovered five key insights related to the behavioral and psychological barriers patients face when selecting and utilizing the right therapy solution for their lifestyle.
The opportunity areas we focused on were based on the first insight and the growing trend emerging for patients ‘biohacking’ existing solutions to better fit their needs.
Opportunity I | Open Source Platform
Opportunity II | Improved User Interaction
The UI and hardware for the insulin pump was described by patients as both clunky and difficult to operate. The second opportunity area focuses on improving the user interaction by modifying the pump into a bluetooth enabled delivery system. This both reduces the size of the hardware required to deliver insulin and improves the screen size of the application. Patients would leverage a mobile device to control delivery and integrate third party applications to develop a more robust understanding of how nutrition, exercise and diet work as complementary pieces to insulin therapy.
