SMART TOUCH
Design for Young Diabetics in Developed and Developing Countries
Smart Touch is a blood glucose monitor for insulin dependent diabetics who use a smart-phone. Care Trade is a
social enterprise that transforms looking after oneself into care for another person in need. This project provides a
dual solution to tackle limited healthcare access in developing countries and lifestyle pressures in developed ones.
Nowadays, diabetics need to carry a glucose monitor machine, needles, and test strips to test their blood glucose
level everyday, 4 times a day. According to interviews and research, the main reason why young diabetics don’t want
to do regular tests is: the blood glucose monitor machine is too big to carry. Moreover, all of these things (the monitor machine, needles, and test strips) are separated, which is inconvenient for them.
Smart Touch is a blood glucose monitor designed to be integrated into an object that everyone has with them all the time anyway – their phone – and uses the phone’s own camera to analyze a sample. Combined with our Smart Touch App, Smart Touch can replace the current blood glucose monitor machine, and it has everything in one device. It is a cell phone casing which has four test strips and needles inside. Moreover, when using the Smart Touch to take care
of yourself, you also help diabetics in the developing world.
A WIN-WIN SYSTEM FOR YOUNG DIABETICS
In some developed countries, such as the UK, diabetics can get free test strips and insulin. However, these young diabetics don't want to test everyday because it is inconvenient. Meanwhile, people in the developing world, such
as Africa, can not afford insulin. They want to do the test, but cannot.
Our goal is to help diabetics in the UK to have more motivation to manage their health by using an easy solution.
At the same time, we also want to help diabetics in developing countries. Smart Touch is a solution that is easy to
carry and use. When you use Smart Touch to take care of yourself, you also help diabetics in developing countries
by donating insulin. Every Smart Touch user has the option to join the social enterprise that sits behind the product
– Care Trade.
Care Trade is a system which utilises the monetary value of such well collected data, selling it to interested parties.
The money is used to provide aid to diabetics in developing countries where supplies of the life saving drug, insulin,
is in very short supply.
Smart Touch is just one product of the Care Trade system. The Care Trade system can also be suitable for obesity, heart disease, smoking... etc.
ALL IN ONE SMART TOUCH
Smart Touch is built into the circular disc on the back of the phone casing and comprises of a replaceable cartridge
of four retractable needles and four test swatches that contain a reagent that reacts with glucose. Once a sample has been taken the device moves the sample around to be scanned by the phone’s own camera.
With its APP, it analyses the sample and an accurate reading is displayed on the phone’s screen. One Smart Touch cartridge allows for four tests, the recommended number diabetics should do per day. The cartridge is then replaced
at the end of the day with a fresh one. The integration with the smartphone means the data collected is logged in a secure location and the app can show trends and patterns over time.
The design of Smart Touch started with a detailed study of young type one diabetics and the fact they have no natural desire to interact with their blood glucose meters, which often get left at home. We learnt that some current monitors
scan the change in colour of a blood sample with a glucose reagent. Visiting the Imperial College chemistry labs, we took the current monitors apart and experimented with the chemical that the industry uses for the tests.
AWARDS
2012 RSA Student Award
2012 Core77 Awards 2012 (Runner Up)
2012 RCA Helen Hamlyn Design Award
2012 PININFARINA Design Contest (3rd Prize)
Date : 2012