Predictive Insulin Delivery with Partial Pre-Meal Dosing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Patients with diabetes often experience undesirable fluctuations in glucose levels due to inadequate insulin delivery timing, particularly around meal times, leading to hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia from improper dosing of basal and bolus insulin.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing processors to predict meal events and adjust insulin delivery by administering a partial dosage before meals, followed by a remaining dosage based on movement characteristics, thereby optimizing insulin intake to stabilize glucose levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the entire insulin dosage is delivered before the meal, then the risk of postprandial hyperglycemia is reduced, but the risk of hypoglycemia increases if the patient does not eat
Solution Approach 1:
The total insulin dosage is segmented into a partial dosage delivered before the meal and a remaining dosage delivered after the meal. This segmentation allows the system to reduce the risk of hypoglycemia by not delivering the full dosage upfront, while still addressing postprandial hyperglycemia through the pre-delivered partial dosage.
Solution Approach 2:
A partial insulin dosage is delivered preliminarily before the meal event occurs, based on prediction of the meal. This preliminary action begins to control the expected glucose rise from the meal while avoiding the full risk of hypoglycemia associated with complete pre-meal dosing.
2Ease of operation
If insulin delivery timing is not adjusted around meal times, then the therapy routine is simple, but undesirable glucose level fluctuations occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback from glucose level monitoring and meal detection (via movement characteristics) to dynamically adjust insulin delivery timing. This feedback mechanism enables the system to optimize glucose control by delivering insulin at appropriate times relative to meals, while maintaining ease of operation through automated control.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulin delivery system transitions from static, fixed-schedule dosing to dynamic, adaptive dosing that responds to predicted and detected meal events. This dynamics allows the therapy to automatically adjust timing based on patient behavior patterns, improving glucose stability without increasing operational complexity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the system waits to detect meal occurrence before delivering insulin, then the risk of hypoglycemia is reduced, but postprandial hyperglycemia increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary insulin delivery based on prediction of meal events before the actual meal occurs. This preliminary action addresses the time delay issue by starting insulin delivery in advance, allowing the medication to take effect before glucose levels rise significantly after eating, thereby reducing postprandial hyperglycemia.
Solution Approach 2:
The system delivers a partial insulin dosage preliminarily before the meal rather than waiting for complete meal detection. This partial action is sufficient to begin controlling the expected glucose rise while avoiding the need to wait for full meal completion, thus reducing both hyperglycemia risk and delivery delay.
Data Source
AI summary
An example system for therapy delivery includes one or more processors configured to in response to a prediction indicating that the meal event is to occur, output instructions to an insulin delivery device to deliver a partial therapy dosage, to a device to notify the patient to use the insulin delivery device to take the partial therapy dosage, or to the insulin delivery device to prepare the partial therapy dosage prior to the meal event occurring, and in response to a determination indicating that the meal event is occurring (e.g., based on movement characteristics of a patient arm), output instructions to the insulin delivery device to deliver a remaining therapy dosage, to the device to notify the patient to use the insulin delivery device to take the remaining therapy dosage, or to the insulin delivery device to prepare the remaining therapy dosage.