Insulin Pump Environmental Sensor Data Acquisition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current insulin pumps lack detailed data on operating conditions during day-to-day activities, leading to over-design or under-design issues due to speculative post-failure analysis, which limits improvements and increases failures.
Innovation Solution
An insulin pump data acquisition device with an environmental sensor, memory, and controller integrated within the pump casing to collect and store data on environmental conditions such as acceleration, pressure, and temperature, powered by a battery, allowing for real-world data collection and analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If post-failure analysis is used to gather data on insulin pump operating conditions, then data can be obtained after failures occur, but the data is highly speculative and does not provide detailed information on actual day-to-day operating conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by installing environmental sensors and data collection systems in insulin pumps before failures occur. These sensors continuously monitor and record operating conditions (temperature, humidity, acceleration, etc.) during normal day-to-day use, so that accurate real-world data is already available when analysis is needed, eliminating the need for speculative post-failure analysis.
2Loss of information
If detailed environmental sensors are added to insulin pumps to collect real-world data, then accurate operating condition information can be obtained, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a multi-functional data collection system where environmental sensors serve multiple purposes: monitoring operating conditions for failure analysis, validating pump performance under real-world conditions, and potentially guiding adaptive insulin delivery. This multi-functionality justifies the added complexity by providing comprehensive benefits beyond single-purpose data collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies nesting by integrating environmental sensors and data collection components within the existing insulin pump housing and battery compartment. The sensors are positioned to monitor conditions without requiring separate external devices, and data is stored in the pump's existing memory or transferable to external devices, thereby minimizing the increase in device complexity.
3Loss of information
If environmental sensors and data collection systems are integrated into insulin pumps, then detailed operating data can be collected, but the device requires additional power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic action by configuring the environmental sensors to collect data at appropriate intervals rather than continuously. The system monitors operating conditions at frequencies sufficient to capture relevant information about day-to-day use patterns while allowing the sensors to enter low-power states between measurements, thereby significantly reducing overall power consumption compared to continuous monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
An insulin pump data acquisition device including: an insulin pump casing having an interior volume; an environmental sensor operable to generate environmental data in response to environmental conditions; memory operably connected to the environmental sensor, the memory being operable to store the environmental data; a controller operably connected to the environmental sensor and the memory, the controller being operable to control reading of the environmental data from the environmental sensor and writing of the environmental data to the memory; and a battery operably connected to power the environmental sensor, the memory, and the controller; wherein the environmental sensor, the memory, the controller, and the battery are disposed within the interior volume.