Designing for Diabetics

Inspired by consumer gadgetry, medical-device makers are creating slick tools for insulin injections and readings

by Reena Jana

• View Slide Show

Tom Baldwin, a 43-year-old flight attendant, regularly wears two sleek gadgets strapped to his belt: an iPhone on one side and his Medtronic (MDT) MiniMed insulin pump on the other. Baldwin, diagnosed with diabetes more than 20 years ago, says passengers and co-workers rarely question why he's got two devices attached to his body. The pump is compact, with a large screen that displays his body's glucose levels in real time and a friendly user interface that features several control buttons with arrows on them. The device, says Baldwin, "looks like a pager."

"I used to be self-conscious about taking insulin shots or using my [earlier] insulin pumps," Baldwin says, referring to the cumbersome syringes and bulkier equipment he had to use. "But no one has ever asked me why I'm wearing this pump. The only people who notice are other diabetics on the flight, who can recognize that there's a tube sticking out of the pump—and they ask me where I got it, how it works."

A new study presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Amsterdam Sept. 20, suggests that the design of a diabetes therapy device might affect a patient's experience with the disease. The Italian study examined quality of life among patients with type 1 diabetes. After surveying 1,341 patients, researchers found that diabetics using insulin pumps such as Baldwin's MiniMed experienced 70% less therapy-related dissatisfaction than patients using multiple injection therapy to manage their glucose levels. In other words, the user-friendly design of insulin pumps—which don't require needles and are therefore less complicated to use—can offer a more comfortable diabetes therapy experience.

Double-Digit Growth

The audience for diabetes-management tools is large—and growing. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimates that there are 20.8 million American diabetics, about 7% of the U.S. population. According to the International Diabetes Federation's latest statistics, nearly 194 million adults around the world are diabetic; by 2025, according to estimates, this figure will reach 333 million. Palo Alto (Calif.) research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that the U.S. market for traditional diabetes monitoring (blood testing equipment and strips that diabetics use to measure their glucose levels) tallied $3.53 billion last year, up 12% from 2005.

"In the last several years, we've seen low double-digit growth," says Mona Patel, director of Frost & Sullivan's medical research department. "Yes, there will be a saturation factor, but the number of diabetics keeps increasing—even among children." So, Patel says, the market for pediatric devices will grow, too.

Trendy-Looking

Medical-device manufacturers and industrial designers alike are increasingly using popular consumer electronics, from MP3 players to cell phones, as inspiration for easy-to-use and unobtrusive diabetes-management tools. The goal is to provide diabetics with equipment that fits as seamlessly into their lives as, say, an iPod, complete with an intuitive interface and a "cool" design factor that encourages patients to monitor their health and self-treat the disease. Just as Apple (AAPL) has used elegant design to competitive advantage, medical-device makers are hoping that trendy-looking diabetes devices will attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Dr. Alan Marcus, director of medical affairs at Medtronic, maker of Tom Baldwin's MiniMed pump, says that the company's research and development division is paying close attention to advances in consumer electronics design, from both a technological and user interface design standpoint. "It's our primary focus," he says. "We're actively moving in that direction."