Photo: jscreationzs
In a recent Loyola University study out of Maryland, 60% of diabetics admitted to occasionally skipping doses of their diabetes medication, 20% admitted to regularly skipping their medication, and one-third of respondents admitting to dreading their insulin injections.
Most diabetics who give themselves insulin injections use traditional syringes or the newer insulin pens. Although insulin pens can be used more discreetly than insulin syringes, insulin dependent diabetics often find it inconvenient and/or embarrassing to inject their insulin in public.
A California company, Calibra Medical, has developed a new insulin delivery system designed to save diabetics the “occasional social challenges” of daily mealtime injections. The new device, Finesse, is a small plastic patch-pen roughly 2 inches long and an inch wide that is attached to the skin like a bandage. It can be worn under your clothes, and remains attached during routine activities like sleeping, exercising and even showering.
Patients use a syringe to pre-fill the patch-pen with a three-day supply of insulin, and simply push two buttons to dispense a dose of fast-acting insulin when needed. The insulin is delivered in seconds through a miniature, flexible plastic tube inserted painlessly into the skin. The device can be operated through your clothing for discreet dosing. The device would not replace the need for long-acting insulin injections.
“Most patients want to eliminate the social embarrassment, elaborate preparation before each dose and the many daily needle sticks required by syringes and insulin pens,” says Calibra Medical’s Charman and CEO, Jeffery Purvin. “Like expensive insulin pumps, Finesse provides fast, discreet, needle free dosing. Yet it accomplishes this with the simplicity, safety and affordability of syringes or insulin pens.”
Finesse recently received FDA approval, and should be on the market soon. Calibra is also working on a patch-pen that would deliver a .05 unit insulin dose for children.
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