Invention could help diabetics with safer, surer insulin injections

Insulin injection, if you’ve never done it, takes two hands. One hand holds the insulin injector. The other hand pinches the skin, to form a bulge so the hormone enters fat under the skin while avoiding muscle, where it can be absorbed quickly enough to cause a seizure.

‘Normally, you have an automatic pancreas,’ says Shawn Michels, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student and diabetic who has invented an add-on to insulin injectors, ‘but my pancreas is manual so I have to give myself injections when I want to reduce my blood sugar levels or eat food with carbohydrates.’

By definition, Type 1 diabetics do not make insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, the body does not respond properly to insulin.

Millions of diabetics around the world, both Type 1 and Type 2, have likely injected insulin billions of times into the easily accessible stomach and thighs. And many of them experience the side effect that bothered Michels – scarring and bruising – to some degree.

But Michels may be the only one who dwelled on the problem long enough to come up with a simple ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ solution.

Insulin injectors use an ultrafine, mostly pain-free needle, but the need to use both hands during injection limits injections to the stomach and thighs.

Less than a year ago, after an estimated 10,000 injections, Michels dreamed up his ‘better idea’ while home on winter break. After discussions with his mother, an accountant, and his father, an executive at a roofing company, Michels decided to pursue his invention. ‘I have always been interested in business from a young age, and my parents were my first mentors,’ he says. ‘We talked about why some of my business ideas had potential, and why others didn’t.’

‘I could never inject into my arm, butt or back but now it’s a one-hand process. I gave my thighs and stomach a month to rest, and now I don’t have bruising or scar tissue.’

Michels has filed a patent and does not allow the device to be photographed, but clearly it is something that could be molded from plastic at low cost. Unless Food and Drug Administration approval is required, he hopes to be on the market in about six months.

Although the device could benefit any diabetic who injects, the initial market will be those with a new diagnosis, Michels says. ‘The first injection can be scary, and having an attachment that will hide the needle and regulate the depth should be helpful.’

University of Wisconsin-Madison news.wisc.edu/invention-could-help-diabetics-with-safer-surer-insulin-injections/