Engineeringtalk

Diabetes, a disease characterised by abnormally high blood sugar resulting from insufficient levels of the hormone insulin, is one of the fastest growing health problems in the world.

The good news is that insulin has been available since the early part of the last century, and those that suffer from the condition can easily be treated. But there's plenty of room for improving the treatment process, and engineers worldwide are working on a plethora of systems to do just that.

Today, diabetics must measure their blood sugar level by pricking a finger, putting a small amount of blood on a strip and then placing the strip into a device which displays the result. Soon, however, that procedure might be a thing of the past thanks to researchers at Georgetown University who are developing a new biosensor device for blood glucose monitoring.

Instead of pricking the skin with a needle, their plaster-sized biosensor blasts the skin with a micron sized micro-heater that makes a tiny pore in it, through which fluid can rise. The biosensor then reads the glucose levels in the fluid through tiny electrodes coated with a substance that reacts to the glucose.

While it's certainly a step in the right direction, a new four-year ?6m EU funded project co-ordinated by diabetes care company Novo Nordisk aims to go one step further by developing a system that can actually predict the blood glucose levels of a diabetic hours ahead.

The system, which will be based on existing wireless body monitoring technology from UK-based Toumaz Technology, will also comprise a plaster like device, this time containing a number of wireless sensors to monitor vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure.

Readings from the sensors will be wirelessly transmitted to a hand-held mobile device where the data will be merged with information on food intake. An advanced algorithm will then analyse the data to predict blood glucose levels.

But measuring blood sugar levels is only half the story. Once that's been done, insulin must be delivered into the body. While not all types of diabetes sufferers require insulin injections, those that do must undergo another painful process.

The good news for those folks, however, is that yet another miniature device - this time an insulin-delivery pump - has recently been developed by Debiotech and STMicroelectronics. Like the other devices, it can also be mounted on a disposable skin patch where it provides continuous insulin infusion.

And it's also closer to market than either the Georgetown or the Novo Nordisk systems. The so-called Nanopump, which relies on microfluidic Micro-Electro-Mechanical System technology, has successfully passed initial testing stages and is now ready to enter volume manufacturing.

Given such exciting developments, it's easy to envisage a future when a universal skin patch that combines the best attributes of all these measurement and delivery systems would enable diabetics to live their lives free from the worry of ever having to take a blood sample or make an insulin injection again.