Charmr. The future for insulin pumps and CGMs?
Amy Tenderich posted an open letter in April that expressed her frustration with current diabetes devices.This has been a recurrent theme on diabetes blogs for some time. In the book Universal Principles of Design, there's a Hierarchy of Needs that follows Maslow's hierarchy for self-actualization. This principle argues that a design can't be Creative before it empowers people to be Proficient. And it can't enable Proficiency until the design is Usable. Usability builds on Reliability and Reliability on Functionality.
The trouble is that the diabetes devices have been stuck at the Reliable and Functional levels of the hierarchy for way too long.
Amy's challenge was to get past what we use today and start providing us with devices that are 'insanely great', like this types of things we expect from Apple.
The (insanely) great news is that the design firm Adaptive Path have taken up this challenge. They've created a concept device called the Charmr, and they've blogged extensively about their design process for the Charmr. There's even a Charmr video on YouTube.
My hope is that diabetes device makers take this challenge seriously. And that they also remember that all devices are part of a larger system.
This system includes: those of us with diabetes; our various devices; the data collected by the devices (insulin intake, blood glucose readings, health information, etc.); and our healthcare team(s).
Remember the iPod? It's successful because it combines the iPod hardware with software that allows us to add music from a variety of sources.
Our diabetes devices will only really be successful when they combine beauty (creativity) and all the other important design attributes with the ability to get the data off the devices and easily share it with other devices and systems. In other words when the accompanying software is an integral part of the system, instead of an afterthought.
Labels: charmr, datastandards, design, devices
posted by Bernard @ 4:23 PM
3 Comments:
Hi, I am a diabetic for 9 years now and was recently thinking about getting a pump. I think this new product is going to be great for us diabetics and, if it would be on the market now, I would really prefer it over the regular pump. Hope it will be available soon.
Boy, I hear you on this! I have had diabetes since 1983 and my meter is about half the size and 40 seconds faster, but PLUHEEZE, that is the best these companies can do.
I guess since they have us trapped, we need the ugly and non-innovative stuff they sell, they have no motivation to get imaginative or create something truly unique and useful.
We got about four free new Lifescan Ultra Mini's. We tried it for a week or two, (NOTHING NEW PEOPLE) but went to the doctor and you can't download the readings!!! What is the point of that? What a useless bunch of marketing, advertising, free meters and hype. It may fit in a man's pocket better, but really has less functionality than ANY meter on the market, even if it is in green and pink.
I put one it the car as a back up, but I will never use it.
Oh! Why are we still pricking our fingers?
I'm done.
For the record, Sontra has been backed by new individuals who want to see the company succeed and deliver on their promise. I am one of thos individuals. You can expect to see new developments from the company with the glucose monitoring devise. It is the intention of the company to deliver this devise to the consumer. I believe it will first be seen in the hospital setting prior to the consumer market. Ultimately, this could be the one company that is capable of of not only the monitoring of information from an individuals bloood but also the non invasive drug delivery to the patient of several compounds without a needle.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home