Continuous innovation in the field of medical devices aims to improve user-friendliness and reduce the burden on patients. According to the World Health Organization, by , more than million people were living with diabetes, and this figure is expected to increase to more than 1 billion people by due to factors such as an ageing population, a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits.
Despite ongoing and important developments in diabetes care, hypoglycemia low blood glucose remains one of the most dangerous and frequent complications of this chronic disease. People with diabetes traditionally have to monitor their blood sugar several times a day and adjust medications, activity, and food intake to help achieve blood sugar targets and avoid low blood glucose. SMBG is limited by its cumbersome procedure and lack of information on glucose dynamics.
CGM offers permanent glucose control but is invasive, costly, and subject to a time lag, especially in hypoglycemia where rapid detection is vital.
Therefore, there is an unmet need for non-invasive and novel approaches to detect hypoglycemia. While SMBG requires patients to perform several finger-sticks during the day, CGM devices include a small disposable sensor inserted into the skin from the stomach or arm. The sensor measures glucose levels every few minutes, throughout the day and night, and sends the information to an attached transmitter and to a separate receiving device.
Based on the information from the sensor, patients will either inject the appropriate level of insulin themselves or use a so-called hybrid loop system with semi- automatic insulin injection via a pump.
