Let there be light!
“Our patient needs a way to be alerted to when their insulin pump is not effectively delivering insulin due to tunneling.”
The key part of this need statement is the “alert.” Our device is relatively useless if it can detect the presence of insulin, but would not do anything as a result. Yesterday, we solved this issue.
Detecting the insulin was no easy task, and differentiating the insulin from other liquids required a series of tests with our first prototype (described in the previous blog post). Based on the results of these voltage tests, though, we were able to produce a second prototype that will do nothing if the circuit is completed by ordinary water or sweat (modeled as diluted saline solution), but will activate a red LED if it is completed by insulin.
This is obviously a huge step forward for us, as our device does both of the necessary functions that we originally set out to do. Our next prototype will address the issues of optimizing space, a smaller power supply, and a less visual way of alerting the patient to any infusion issues.
BME Design 