Wireless Devices Will Save Diabetics’ Lives

I’m a complete gadget geek. (I built my first computer in the 1970s—when I was 5. My first “laptop” experience was just 10 years later with a hulking device that actually had a phone-cradle modem.)

I’m also a diabetic, and I’ve played with a lot of the gadgets aimed at type 2s like me. It hasn’t always been much fun: In 1999, when I was diagnosed, I was shocked by the poor design of the products. The glucose monitors were clunky, inaccurate, and hard to configure. Most came with a vial of solution and code numbers that had to be plugged in to obtain a proper reading. Only a couple of expensive models could connect to a computer, and those required custom software.

Still, even then the technology had come a long way. When my grandfather was dying of the disease in the late 1960s, my grandmother had to boil urine and a chemical in a test tube to get his sugar level. If the soup turned blue, his sugar was normal. Orange or red was bad news. Injecting insulin based on color-guessing often resulted in hypoglycemia.

By the time I had diabetes, at least, the technology produced numbers, and that meant I could get a trend line—am I going up, or am I going down? And now, manufacturers are even creating cool monitors.

Technology for the type 1s among us
For type 1 diabetics, technology is even more critical, and the wireless age should make a real difference. Insulin pumps and glucose monitors can communicate with other devices—cell phones, say, or a GPS device in a car—to warn when blood sugar is bottoming out and the patient needs help. High or low blood-sugar events can quickly fog the brain, and audible warnings could help prevent catastrophes.

Medtronic, a leading manufacturer of pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), mocked up a wireless warning system at a recent trade show. Other diabetic devices that use wireless technology are receiving approval.

For parents of children with type 1 diabetes, wireless technology coupled with CGMs will offer them a window into their child’s health from another room in the house—or from a thousand miles away via cell phone.

This should interest more than the geeks out there.

(PHOTO: ANIMASCORP.COM)

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