Why Evaluate Insulin Pens?
We at the AFB TECH product evaluation lab have been evaluating diabetes self-care devices over the years because of the close relationship between diabetes and blindness. Nearly one-third of the 21 million Americans with diabetes have some degree of vision loss, and diabetes is the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults. The accessibility and usability of insulin pens is important because, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 28.7% of Americans with diabetes require insulin injections. Not all persons with diabetes can or want to use an insulin pump to deliver their insulin, and an insulin pen is an attractive alternative to using a regular syringe. A 2003 study on microneedles conducted at Georgia Tech and published in Georgia Tech Research News found that the microneedles that are used with insulin pens are considerably less painful to inject than are conventional hypodermic needles because the microneedles are too small to stimulate nerve endin
