RFID In Aid Of Diabetes

Filed in archive Near Field Communication on August 31, 2006

In what is being seen as a new development in the field of healthcare, RFID might soon help diabetes patients control their blood sugar in a better way. Cambridge Consultants along with Philips Semiconductors have come up with a prototype medical device consisting of a glucometer and an insulin pump and both of them are linked via NFC or Near Field Communication.

Now let's see how it works. Whenever a patient checks his glucose level with a glucometer and in case a higher than normal glucose level is detected in the blood, a bolus dose of insulin would be recommended by the device.

In case the patient decides to take the recommended dose, the glucometer containing an NFC based chip and antenna is passed near the insulin pump also having an NFC based chip and antenna and then the recommended dosage data is passed to the insulin pump and the patient receives the drug via a subcutaneous catheter.

With this device the patient develops confidence and control over the treatment and benefit of patient-in-the-loop is derived from NFC. This could certainly develop as an alternative for current devices where glucometers are being used and then appropriate doses are administered via syringes or insulin pumps are used which constantly monitor glucose level and insulin is automatically delivered and what we call is the closed loop feature.