A WEARABLE artificial pancreas designed by a Coventry University student is one of ‘100 ideas to change the world’ at this year’s Global Grad Show.
And a clever new digital glucometer teaching ‘hand’ to train healthcare professionals, developed by an assistant professor at the university, is now on the UK market.
The Global Grad Show, a virtual diverse gathering of graduate ideas for social impact from across the world, kicked off on Monday (November 9), including 24 designs from UK and Ireland.
Third year Coventry University BA product design student Oliver Sinclair designed a ‘revolutionary artificial pancreas’ as part of his final major project. His Insulite’s system aims to improve the diabetes self-care experience – and means no more finger pricks and injections. This discrete and wearable artificial pancreas, paired with an intuitive app interface, allows maximum control with the automatic insulin injections these are adjusted by the measured blood glucose level.
Now in its sixth year projects will this year be brought to life in an inaugural interactive digital exhibition on globalgradshow.com, giving a voice to the next generation of innovators and connecting the public and potential investors all over the world with ideas that have the potential to change lives.
Closer to home, another innovative invention in the diabetes field designed by a Coventry University academic and lecturer is now on the UK market.
After years of experience teaching healthcare professionals, Assistant Professor Nina Godson, the Clinical Skills lead in Coventry University’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, identified a gap in the market for a medical simulator that provided an all-in-one solution for delivering blood glucose training.
It features a realistic adult-sized hand with two refillable, self-closing finger blood pads and comes in multiple skin tones to reflect ethnic and racial diversity.
Nina has been working with Adam,Rouilly – a national medical simulation manufacturer in Kent – to develop the GlucoHand® in response to rising cases of diabetes. The disease affects some 415 million people globally and in the UK alone an estimated 4.5 million people live with the condition.
The clever device, which costs £1,275, is already being used to train Coventry University students, and Nina hopes that it will take away any fear or anxiety for patients and students in performing the procedure.
Nina said: “We aim for perfection, but settle for excellence and that’s why we’ve designed this hand. We want to make sure that we give excellent teaching and learning experiences for the students so once they are out in clinical practise, they can relate to a real patient.”
The new device is designed to help the understanding and teaching of blood sampling, the interpretation of glucose level data and its implications in patient treatment planning. It features a digital glucometer simulator which allows the tutor or trainer to pre-set a low, normal, high or completely randomised glucose reading.
Blood samples may be drawn and measured using the reusable blood glucose test strips, producing a result which can then be interpreted by the learner.
Diabetic patients and students can learn to recognise hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia through a simulated scenario and discuss the next appropriate clinical steps.
Daniel Mogentale, Product Development and Marketing Manager at Adam,Rouilly said: “We are very excited to bring to market a complete solution for blood glucose training which is both realistic and cost effective. The scenario control is an excellent feature which will really ensure that trainees or patients are confident in being able to decipher any blood glucose reading as part of wider treatment planning.”
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