Insulin Pump for Diabetes Control
Patients with type 1 diabetes lack the ability to properly produce insulin to remove glucose. Conventionally, patients would make use of insulin pens to give themselves doses of insulin.
Because fully automatic insulin pumps aren’t available, a large amount of work had to be done regarding the algorithm. This included health and risk assessments as well as the design of the algorithm.
This project produced an autonomous insulin pump designed to work with an external glucose monitor to administer insulin doses. My focus in the project was working on the dose algorithm, working with LabVIEW.
Skills Used
Market Research
Initially, market research was conducted to review the insulin pumps already available. This included performance assessments of these pumps as well as looking for notes of improvement for the devices.
Risk Assessment
Insulin pumps have an inherent risk due to its the nature of insulin and its interaction with the body — so do the other components of the pumps. A detailed failure mode analysis was done to control and mitigate these risks.
Algorithm Design
To produce a fully automatic insulin pump, LabVIEW for the programming. While learning and adapting quickly, a final algorithm was produced to allow the pump to function autonomously while ensuring it meets the safety and risk requirements.
