Insulin Pen Cap Meal Detection for Simpler Bolus Dosing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing diabetes management systems burden users with cognitive tasks in determining appropriate insulin dosages, often requiring manual entry of carbohydrate intake and lacking accuracy in insulin bolus calculations.
Innovation Solution
A pen cap equipped with sensors, user-selectable icons or buttons, and a processor to simplify meal announcement and insulin dosage calculation, personalized based on user-specific parameters and blood glucose data, reducing cognitive burden and improving accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If bolus calculators are used to assist with insulin dosage calculation, then the calculation burden on the user is reduced, but the user still bears the cognitive task of determining the number of carbohydrates in their meal and manual data entry is required
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically determines carbohydrate intake and calculates insulin dosage without requiring user input. The pen device self-services by detecting plunger position to infer meal occurrence and automatically computing the bolus amount, eliminating the need for users to manually enter carbohydrate data or perform calculations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of carbohydrate counting and data entry with an automated electronic detection system. The plunger position sensor and processor substitute for the user's cognitive tasks, using mechanical movement detection to trigger automated carbohydrate determination and insulin calculation.
2Loss of information
If manual data entry is required for carbohydrate intake, then the system can obtain meal information, but the user interaction and time required are increased
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of plunger position to anticipate meal occurrence before the user needs to input data. By detecting the mechanical action of drawing insulin, the system proactively prepares for meal annotation and automatically associates the upcoming insulin administration with meal carbohydrate determination, eliminating the need for subsequent manual data entry.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from plunger position detection to automatically determine when a meal has occurred and to trigger the insulin calculation process. The sensor feedback loop continuously monitors plunger movement and provides real-time information to the processor, which automatically updates the meal state and calculates the appropriate bolus dosage without user intervention.
3Ease of operation
If the user interface includes user-selectable icons or buttons for meal announcement, then the user can easily indicate meal intent, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the meal announcement function from the main user interface by implementing it through automatic plunger position detection. Instead of requiring users to interact with meal announcement buttons or icons, the system removes this separate interaction layer and integrates meal detection directly into the insulin delivery mechanism, simplifying the overall interface while maintaining ease of operation.
4Extent of automation
If automated meal detection is implemented through plunger position sensing, then the cognitive burden on the user is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The plunger position sensor serves multiple functions: it detects when the user is drawing insulin, determines meal occurrence, triggers the bolus calculation, and provides feedback for the user interface. By making this single sensor multi-functional, the system achieves high automation without proportionally increasing device complexity, as one component performs several critical detection tasks.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 2A~2B
AI summary
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may include an insulin delivery system that includes an insulin delivery device, a user interface that includes multiple user-selectable icons or buttons each representing different meal characteristics, memory to store one or more user-specific dosage parameter, and a processor in communication with the memory and adapted to receive blood glucose data. The processor may also be adapted to determine initial meal characteristics associated with each of the user-selectable icons or buttons based on at least one of the user-specific dosage parameters. The processor may also be adapted to update the meal characteristics associated with each of the user-selectable icons or buttons based upon the blood glucose data.