This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate a new non-invasive glucose sensor for diabetes patients. Similar in approach to pulse oximetry, the sensor measures the intensity of light scattered by epidermis at two wavelengths to provide a sensitive and specific reading of the patient?s blood glucose concentration. This approach will enable the construction of a continuous glucose monitor with wearable form factors (small size, low weight) and low cost. This device will greatly improve the ability of diabetes patients to control their glucose level and eventually support an automated closed-loop insulin delivery system (artificial pancreas).
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is improvement in the health of millions of diabetes patients and reducing the large and growing cost of treating the disease. This will be achieved by eliminating the discomfort of repeated blood tests and providing more frequent glucose readings. Diabetes is a chronic disease with no cure. It is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney malfunction, amputations and blindness in the adult population. According to the American Diabetes Association, the direct cost of treating diabetes and its complications is ~10% of the entire cost of the US healthcare system.
Diabetes is a chronic disease with no cure. It is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney malfunction, amputations and blindness in the adult population. According to the American Diabetes Association, the number of diabetes patients in the U.S. in 2010 was 25.8 million, including 1.9 million new cases. The direct cost of treating diabetes and its complications in the US was $174 billion in 2007, ~10% of the entire annual cost of the US healthcare system. This SBIR Phase I project was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel glucose monitoring approach based on dual-wavelength light scattering. The proposed technology was designed to enable development of a continuous glucose monitor with wearable form factors (small size, low weight) and low cost. Similar in approach to pulse oximetry, the new sensor monitors light intensity at two wavelengths to provide a sensitive and specific reading of the patient’s blood glucose concentration. During the Phase I period, research was conducted to design and construct a desktop glucose monitoring instrument and subsequently to verify its performance. The research was conducted according to the research plan specifically developing a prototype instrument, verifying its underlying capabilities, and then comparing its performance on test subjects vs. test strips. The instrument demonstrated tracking with blood glucose. Due to various tissue interferences the approach requires additional research beyond the scope of the Phase I project to improve its correlation with blood glucose across multiple subjects.
