On January 20th, 2010, Calibra Medical announced that the FDA had approved their Finesse patch-pen product. I talked with the marketing manager of Calibra Medical at some length and he gave me full details about the Finesse product. I’ve posted these on my diabetes technology blog.
In a nutshell, I think this device will be of great interest to people who are using syringes or insulin pens currently. It adheres to your skin and can be worn for 2-3 days, but it’s completely manual, no electronics. You’ll also see some pictures of the Finesse in my review of the Finesse patch-pen.
What a great idea! Better than pens or syringes. Guess there’s no way to deliver half units.
Gerri, they hope to have a unit that delivers 0.5 units to address the needs of kids. Whichever unit you get, each press of the buttons dispenses the same amount of insulin. It’s not as flexible as a syringe. But you get a lot more accuracy. To get the flexibility you’d have to wear two of them, one that dispenses 1 unit per press, and when it comes along, one that dispenses 0.5 units. But that would probably be a pain, because now you’d be using twice as many (higher costs) and putting two on every 2-3 days wouldn’t be any fun.
Thanks, Bernard. Sounds great & more accurate than a syringe, not to metnion the convenience. I also like that there’s a way to remove air bubbles, an annoyance with syringes. Wonderful also for those of us who have to squint to see syringe markings.
I use .5 unit doses. I’d use the .5 unit device & calculate it from there, rather than wear two.
I always have my pens with me so don’t really see it being useful in my life.
Appears more reliable with doses vs pens that sometimes leak. Really different concept–not a pen and not a pump either. A simple, cheap way to eliminate multiple daily needle jabs. I did not know that only 6% of insulin users use a pump (thought it was more like 20-25%), so it could add real benefit to a lot of people. Pumps are out of reach financially for so many.
Don, that figure of 94% was given to me by Calibra Medical. I assume they’ve done substantial research so they could determine the size of their market. 6% sounds small, but unfortunately the diabetes market’s pretty big.
This is a really great concept…