Children with diabetes

[biomedengineer]

Hey everyone. I am a fourth year biomedical engineering student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. As part of our senior year classes, we are required to take a design class in which we have to design and build a prototype of a medical device. My group was given the task of developing a child-friendly glucose monitor. Through discussions with family members and friends that have been diagnosed with diabetes, we have put together a design. We are hoping to get some additional feedback so we developed an online survey. The survey is designed to be answered by parents that have children diagnosed with diabetes, however if you grew up with diabetes, your input would also be very helpful. If you wouldn’t mind taking the time to answer our survey questions (click on the link below) it would be of great help to us. As a disclaimer, this survey is designed to help us in our class. The described design will be incorporated into a prototype, which we are building, but will not go any further in the design process. The primary goal is too push the limits of the skills we have learned throughout our college experience and see if we can come up with a product that could in theory make glucose testing more child-friendly. Thank you for your time.

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226A2ZLSMR6

[nneighbour]

When it comes to reusing sharps, a lot of it has to do with the lancet/needle becoming dull hense more pain. Sterility is important, but so is minimizing pain and skin damage.

[slipperyelm]

"The proposed design includes a reusable, internal lancet that is continuously sterilized using ultraviolet light. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being most important), how important is a self-contained, reusable lancet that does not need to be changed after every test?....Are you concerned with the fact that the lancet is reusable and self-sterilizing?"

If you will read recent discussion on this forum you will see that sterility is not important to many people. The question may be assuming importance is attached where it is not. Ask me if I'd pay extra for a feature I don't think necessary. Few of us are immunocompromised. Presently, lancets are not packaged to guarantee sterility, so changing them out does not give a sterile puncture. I think more people change lancets to get a sharp one than to get a "clean" one. Sharpness is my concern, not sterility.

I did not take your survey. No diabetic child in my care.