Needle-Free Diabetic Care
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Needle-Free Diabetic Care
Introduction
According to World Health Organization statistics of 2014, diabetes has a prevalence rate of 8.5% with 422 million people suffering from the condition globally. Diabetes is a condition of metabolic disorder that causes an individual to have higher than normal blood glucose levels. The condition is mainly caused by inadequate production of insulin in the body or the inability of body cells to respond to the insulin produced in the body. Diabetes occurs in two types; Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Some of the symptoms of diabetes include weight loss, hunger, thirst, fatigue, impaired vision, hyperglycemic conditions, and excessive urine excretion. If patients fail to respond well to oral treatment, insulin therapy is often the first option in the line of treatment. To diagnose diabetes, blood pricking is the procedure employed in analyzing the levels of blood glucose in a patient’s body. Pricking one’s finger with a lancet can be a painful and uncomfortable experience for many people and it often leads to less frequent testing and poor management of blood levels. If phobia of needles is an obstacle that keeps many people suffering from diabetes from observing their medication protocol, then needle-free injection devices are a game-changer. Although needle-free injections come with their fair share of challenges, they are a step in the right direction in ensuring millions of people battling diabetes access effective and patient-friendly treatment. This essay highlights various innovations in medical technology in the provision of needle-free diabetic care including Eversense, D base, GlucoTrack, NovioSense, GlucoWise, SugarBeat, and Occuity Indigo. The paper also touches on the advantages and disadvantages of needle-free diabetic care in general.
Eversense
To begin with, eversense is one of the recent developments that companies around the world have come up with to facilitate the non-invasive monitoring of glucose. Eversense is an implant developed to continuously monitor the level of glucose in an individual’s blood. It was developed by Senseonics, a US-based company. Worth noting, the device has to be initially deposited under the patient’s skin by a doctor. However, it has a sensor that is capable of lasting a period of three months before it can be replaced. Eversense uses a polymer that responds to blood sugar levels enabling it to measure the amount of glucose within the interstitial fluid (Kojic, Goyal, Lou, & Corwin, 2017). The device is put under the skin in the upper arm of a patient. It sends data in real-time to a transmitter which shows the number of glucose levels in the patient’s blood. The eversense device was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018 which struck a deal to distribute it with Roche. There was a six-month version which was approved in 2017 in Europe and FDA is set to approve the version by the end of 2021. Senseonics is currently in the process of developing an eversense device capable of lasting a year.
D-Base
D-base is another needle-free development in the treatment of diabetes. D-base is a blood sugar monitor which is the size of a shoebox. The D-base monitor is a development of DiaMonTech, a German-based firm. The monitor measures the level of sugar in a patient’s blood through beaming infrared lasers on a finger’s skins causing the glucose to convert light to heat. Then, depending on the level of heat increase on the patient’s skin, the device is able to calculate the level of glucose. The increase in heat is too small for the user to notice it. In 2019, the D-base devise was approved for use by medical professionals in diabetes centers and clinical trials in the European Union. The German-based developer company is now in the process of developing a similar device for use in the US market. Furthermore, DiaMonTech is also working to develop smaller versions including a small sensor for use in wearable devices and a handheld D-pocket device.
GlucoTrack
Glucotrack is another recent innovation in the management and treatment of diabetes. It is a development of Integrity Applications, a US-Israeli Company. GlucoTrack monitors sugar levels in a patient’s blood using a combination of electromagnetic, ultrasonic, and thermal waves. The sensor is often clipped on a person’s ear to enable it to provide readout. Worth noting, the monitor device is used by adults that suffer from type 2 diabetes and is marketed mainly in Europe. Integrity Applications is aiming at expanding its market in the United States. The company is in the process of developing second-generation GlucoTrack devices that will feature wireless earless clip sensors that will be paired with smartphones..
NovioSense
NovioSense is another medical technological innovation in needle-free diabetic care. This is a Dutch-based startup that is seeking to develop a sugar-based monitor placed under patients’ lower eyelid to enable it to send measurements of glucose levels to a smartphone directly and in real-time (Ji, Gao, Chen, Wang, Ma, Ran, & Shan, 2020). The monitor has a flexible metal coil that is two centimeters long containing nanosensors inside. The coil is in turn covered with a layer of soft hydrogel for protective purposes. The coil measures glucose levels in tear fluid by the minute and uses a similar enzyme technology as the glucose strip tests are based upon. Results from a clinical study show that the monitor can be compared to the Freestyle Libre in terms of accuracy. In 2020, NovioSense was acquired by a private equity firm based in the United States and is licensing the technology to various players within the diabetes treatment space.
GlucoWise
Glucowise is another development that is worth recognizing in the field of needle-free diabetic care. Although it is still under development, it is a sensor that measures the amount of glucose levels in the blood. It does this by simply positioning it on the patient’s skin between the forefinger and thumb. It then sends measurements in real-time to a smartphone application. Its developers hold that it is more accurate than other wireless monitors because it employs specific radiofrequency waves to calculate the amount of glucose levels in a patients’ blood. MediWise is the firm behind this device. In 2018, the UK-based firm was taken over by Metamaterial Technologies, a Canadian specialist for smart materials and photonics. Metamaterial Technologies has since continued with the work of developing GlucoWise. In July 2021, the company commenced human trials of a GlucoWise version that blends machine learning and an array of wavelength sensors to attain more accurate results.
SugarBEAT
SugarBEAT is another device that has proved useful in needle-free treatment. It was developed by Nemaura, a United Kingdom-based Biotech Company. SugarBEAT is a skin patch which is replaceable and is often attached to a transmitter. SugarBEAT non-invasively measures the level of glucose in the blood of a patient (Yale, Dulude, Egeth, Piché, Lafontaine, Carballo, & Guzman, 2017). It does this by passing across low-level electric currents on the skin and draws samples of interstitial fluid located just beneath the skin. The transmitter is rechargeable and it sends data to the patient’s smartphone via Bluetooth thus making it possible to monitor the reading with an accompanying application. Worth noting, SugarBEAT has already attained marketing approval within the European Union. The device is set to gain FDA approval later in the year.
Occuity Indigo
Occuity Indigo is another innovation to diabetes treatment that takes literally, the expression of the eyes being the window to the soul. Occuity Indigo is a glucose meter which is eye-focused. Instead of measuring fluid in tears as did their counterparts, the developer opts to look at the eyeball as it is a stable and transparent environment whose level of glucose relates with the levels in the blood. The Occuity Indigo device sends faint beam lights to the eyeballs and calculates the amount of light which bounces to the device. It can measure the level of glucose in the eye depending on how much the returning lights refract. Occuity continues to fuel the advancement of monitoring technologies with Seedrs crowdfunding campaigns. The company is also in the process of developing another device capable of screening people at increased risk of suffering from diabetes among other health problems in the future.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Needle-free Diabetic Care
Needleless syringes are effective in diabetic care and treatment because of various advantages. To begin with, needless syringes help eliminate the phobia of needles that patients struggle with. Because no needles are required, there is reduced psychological resistance to diabetes treatment. Needleless syringes increase compliance with medication particularly for young children that suffer from diabetes. Additionally, insulin treatment is not easy for patients as they have to deal with injections and holding their tummy on a daily basis which is quite an uncomfortable experience. However, the use of needless syringes makes it fun. Another advantage of needle-free diabetic care is that it is safer as there is a reduced likelihood of needles breaking (Xing, Xie, Xu, Liu, He, Yang, & Ji, 2019). Furthermore, the use of needleless syringes minimizes the risk of treatment as well as the cost and trouble of disposing of medical waste. This is because some patients carry serious infectious diseases. Additionally, needleless medication saves on money and medicine. This is because the body of needle-free injectors can be reused repeatedly and by different individuals which greatly improve the economy as it completely eliminates injection change. Additionally, needleless syringes eliminate the formation of induration which forms in the injection site following repeated injections. On the downside, needless syringes are more costly than conventional syringes. Additionally, there is the worry of the liquid not being injected successfully since the injection process is rapid and mild which is contrary to the traditional syringe. Another disadvantage is that the needless syringes are large in volume compared to the traditional syringe making them more complicated to and use.
Conclusion
In closing, needleless approaches to diabetes care are more effective when compared to convectional ways of administering medication. In recent years, there has been various innovations in medical technology in providing needle-free diabetic care including, Eversense, D base, GlucoTrack, Novio Sense, GlucoWise, SugarBeat, and Occuity Indigo. Although they have their fair share of disadvantages, they have proved effective because they have eliminated the use of needles, a mode of treatment that is notorious for evoking fear among patients. Diabetes patients tend not to follow their medication because of the process of injecting insulin that they must undertake on day-to-day basis. Needless syringes help in saving money and medicine and eliminate the formation of indurations at the injection site. Needlessness syringes are effective for self-injection but they have the downside of having a larger volume compared to traditional syringes. Needleless syringes are also more expensive and may take time for the patients to its use. In the future, there is a need for developers to undertake mass media sensitization to improve the confidence of people in needleless diabetic care. This will make its use more effective as a result of increased uptake.
References
Kojic, N., Goyal, P., Lou, C. H., & Corwin, M. J. (2017). An innovative needle-free injection system: comparison to 1 ml standard subcutaneous injection. AAPS PharmSciTech, 18(8), 2965-2970.
Ji, L., Gao, L., Chen, L., Wang, Y., Ma, Z., Ran, X., & Shan, Z. (2020). Insulin delivery with a needle-free insulin injector versus a conventional insulin pen in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A 16-week, multicenter, randomized clinical trial (the FREE study). EClinicalMedicine, 23, 100368.
Xing, Y., Xie, X., Xu, J., Liu, J., He, Q., Yang, W., … & Ji, Q. (2019). Efficacy and safety of a needle-free injector in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with basal insulin: a multicentre, prospective, randomized, crossover study. Expert opinion on drug delivery, 16(9), 995-1002.
Yale, J. F., Dulude, H., Egeth, M., Piché, C. A., Lafontaine, M., Carballo, D., … & Guzman, C. B. (2017). Faster use and fewer failures with needle-free nasal glucagon versus injectable glucagon in severe hypoglycemia rescue: a simulation study. Diabetes technology & therapeutics, 19(7), 423-432.
