Cambridge Consultants has developed a concept blood glucose monitor that should be simpler to use, less cumbersome to carry and has a third of the environmental impact of traditional devices. When assessing which parts of traditional devices had the highest environmental impact, the design firm discovered that less than 5% of the environmental impact could be attributed to the monitor itself, while more than 70% was attributed to single-use disposables used over the lifetime of the device.
Existing blood glucose monitors require separate lancets, test strips, storage tubs for carrying these items and sharps bins for disposal. This makes them fiddly to use, inconvenient to transport and wasteful, especially if you consider that diabetics are testing their blood glucose about four times a day. The solution was to create a single consumable cartridge that integrates lancets and teststrips into the monitor itself.
The cartridge carries enough lancets and test strips for 28 tests and the device does all the handling. For the patient this only leaves the glucose meter itself to be carried around, without any additional components. Taken together, this makes the glucose test far easier to administer and much more discreet. It sure looks like a great concept, but it is still just a concept device at this stage, so hopefully a manufacturer will take on the challenge of mass-producing it sooner rather than later.
Press release: New eco-friendly breed of medical devices…