Poster problem/background/specs

Problem
At the Regional Hospital in Esteli, Nicaragua, they only had one glucometer shared among 15 clinics. As a result, diabetes patients were not able to monitor their blood glucose levels on a regular basis, a crucial part of controlling their disease. The key expense of glucometers is the test strip, which is proprietary. Our design challenge is to design a fast, cheap, safe and reliable way of measuring glucose levels that can be used widely by diabetes patients, even in poor resource settings.

Background
Glucometers are essential for monitoring glucose levels in diabetes patients. Diabetes patients lose the ability to either produce or respond to insulin, a key protein that signals cells to take in glucose. A typical diabetes patient has fasting plasma glucose level at or above 126 mg/dL. Depending on patients’ medication dosage, level of exercise, and food intake, their glucose levels can fluctuate dramatically. Persistent hyperglycemia can lead to long term complications like heart failure, while hypoglycemia may cause short-term complications like comas.

Design Specifications:
• Sample Volume: 0.3ul to 10ul
• Accuracy: +/- 10-15%.
• Testing sites: Mostly fingertips
• Processing time: 3 to 60 seconds.
• Frequency: Type 1 diabetics may test up to 10 to 12 times a day.
• Whole blood glucose vs. plasma glucose: plasma glucose 10-15% higher