Medical Device Wearables
Developing Next Gen Diabetes Management Devices
Challenge
Medtronic came to IDEO to help with developing their next gen diabetes care device ecosystem including a new tethered pump, patch pump, stand alone CGM (continuous blood glucose monitor), and CGM integrated infusion set. We also developed a full set of accessory devices including insertion devices as well as an app used to control and connect all of the components.
Outcome
The outcome was a set of rigorous concepts for each of these device that the Medtronic design and engineering team took forward into production.
This shot features the next gen tethered pump device. Although it was designed to be controlled primarily through the users phone it still needed a fully functional and easy to use UI in case the users phone went missing or was disabled.
We created and tested countless UI layouts for the pump, trying to balance users desire for a compact device with their desire for an intuitive on pump control system.
Our initial approach to user testing was to create fully functional hardware prototypes of each of the pump UIs complete with buttons, LEDs, haptics, piezos, etc. We linked all of this to a prototype app using ProtoPie that could handle two way communication between the hardware prototype and the app prototype.
In order to iterate faster we quickly pivoted to creating 2D mock ups of the pump UI and bringing it to life using the screen, haptics, and speakers in a smart phone. Using the iPad the user researcher can trigger events, such as a low blood glucose alert, and then observe how the user responses to the alert on the phone and the pump.
We took a similar approach to developing the UI of the wearable devices including the insulin patch pump and CGM (continuous blood glucose monitor). During the pandemic we sent users remote “research kits” with sets of prototypes. One of these was an arm band equipped with accelerometers, LEDs, haptic motors, and piezos that allowed us to test different interactions with the hardware.
We also developed all of the mechanical hardware interactions for the wearable patch pump and CGM. Here you can see a small handful of the patch pump architectures that we tested as well as the final concept, featuring a reusable battery+pump unit and disposable reservoir+cannula unit.
We also developed all of the accessory devices including this “push to deploy” inserter that allows for fool proof infusion set application with minimal user input.
One of the common comorbidities of diabetes is neuropathy, which dramatically reduces finger strength and dexterity. In the push to miniaturize and reduce the footprint of these devices, many companies have also made them virtually impossible for some patients to use. An example of this is the small clip used to attach and detach the tubing from the infusion site. To circumvent this issue, we developed a “shell” style connector that turns the device itself into the clip, maximizing the ease of attaching and detaching it.
