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Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

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Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#171

Post by Zimahl »

berkes wrote: post #148
jerryhuang100 wrote: post #54

One major concern I would have is that, in diabetic patients their eyes experience more dryness than non-diabetic patients. This might lead to more scratches on the cornea and prone to further infections and ulcers. As diabetics care 101, diabetics patients have mucher high risk of systematic infections. And this is all way before any diabetic retinopathy develops in those patients. So why Google[x] thinks it's a goo…

AS a Type I, my doctor advised me strongly to start wearing glasses and stop wearing lenses. Because they would apparently increase the risk of early blindness even more.

I'm not sure whether you or my wife need a new eye doctor. Hers knows she is diabetic and is doing extra screening watching for any possible damage from the disease but has never said anything about her contact lenses being a problem. Other than while sleeping she always wears her contacts.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#172

Post by Zimahl »

fjcaetano wrote: post #84

At first, I thought this could be quite intrusive. I mean, you're putting something in your eye! It's the same discussion as the biometry authentication systems (retina scanning, saliva, etc). But then I realized: the alternative is to put a piece of hardware under your skin! It will be embeded in you "forever" and can only be removed via surgical procedures... These contact lens, if ever available, will in fact revo…

Maybe. You need to understand that diabetes equipment is a lot like a Segway - it's interesting and solves a problem but it's expensive and somewhat infeasible.

Many things could contribute to this not being as revolutionary as it sounds. Everything from cost down to accuracy is a concern. Diabetics do like to have hope that this will be the game-changer but they've heard that many times before.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#173

Post by jlees »

dagw wrote: post #145
berkes wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't confuse Type I with Type II. Type II is caused by external influences, such as unhealty life-style, old age, or other medical conditions (which include genetic defects or other genetic variations). Type I is genetic. If you have the faulty genes, you get it. Regardless of lifestyle, health, country and whatnot. Another thing many people are confused with, is "severety of Diabetes". You can have "very sev…

How easily and how severely you get Type II is however also influenced by genetics.

Indeed, I've spent the last few years trying to significantly improve my lifestyle to decrease the chance my maternal line's 100% record of Type II diabetes ends before it gets to me.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#174

Post by selimthegrim »

f-debong wrote: post #130

I think this is one of many such implementations which we will see in the next few months. Not long ago, the FDA posted their guidelines on mobile health, which will most likely be part of the system, finally establishing a hint of what they will require to give an approval to a mobile system in the medical field. I have some experience in this, and can tell you it is very exciting. No blatant ad here, sorry! Since t…

Where has the FDA posted them? I thought the final ones weren't going to be ready until this summer? Is this a draft or RFC?

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#175

Post by Someone »

bigtunacan wrote: post #123
morganherlocker wrote: post #25

Type I diabetic here. Assuming current tech stays where it is (not saying it will), this could easily tack 10 years on to my lifespan. For many who watch their diabetes less closely (something I cannot fault anyone for), this could add 20-30 years. For anyone who does not know, type I diabetes is not something you can just follow a doctor's direction on and be ok. Even if you follow your doctor perfectly, there can s…

Your last point listed here is such a big deal too. It shouldn't matter if these things are 100% effective; they need to be released and patients need to be informed that manual testing still needs to be done. If for no other reason than to help reduce the number of type 1 diabetics who die in their sleep from low blood sugars. For anyone here not familiar with this phenomenon; it is referred to as "Dead in Bed Syndr…

I found that 6% unbelievably high. A check confirms that. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10097898:

"It appears that such deaths occur in 6% of all deaths in diabetic patients below age 40 years."

So, it's not that 6% of diabetics will die in their sleep before they are 40, but of those that die before they are 40, 6% die I their sleep.

That makes the risk per hour of dying in your sleep about a tenth of that of dying while awake. I would guess that is relatively large compared to non-diabetics, but probably nowhere as freaky as you portray it it be.

Further evidence: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8542738 shows 16 such deaths in Norway in a ten year period, with 224 other deaths (during the day, or at night, but not matching the criteria for death in bed syndrome)

Also, http://www.fhi.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=240&trg=List_6673&Ma... shows about 20 type I diabetics per 100.000 Norwegians. With 5.000.000 Norwegians, that gives about 10.000 type I diabetics, of which about two die each year of this cause.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#176

Post by throwawaay »

lazerwalker wrote: post #162

I don't at all want to downplay the honest importance of this project — this is the true sort of real "tangibly improving people's lives" technology that not enough people are aspiring to these days — but the timing of this announcement is very strategic on Google's part. Days after people get VERY upset at Google for buying Nest, and moaning about Google's evil surveillance state, Google turns around and announces s…

Please. Like this project was just sitting there, waiting for a media shitstorm to pop up. The knee-jerk cynicism on these threads is truly getting stupid.

The timing is almost certainly because the project's secrecy had been recently compromised by the FDA revealing a meeting with the engineering team on its public calendar.

http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/1/10/5297216/google-x-team-m...

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#177

Post by berkes »

Zimahl wrote: post #171
berkes wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AS a Type I, my doctor advised me strongly to start wearing glasses and stop wearing lenses. Because they would apparently increase the risk of early blindness even more.

I'm not sure whether you or my wife need a new eye doctor. Hers knows she is diabetic and is doing extra screening watching for any possible damage from the disease but has never said anything about her contact lenses being a problem. Other than while sleeping she always wears her contacts.

There's a whole story to this, but that is a little too private to share on the web :)

The larger story is, that lenses can damage the eye (tiny scratches, little infections); regardless of Diabetes. Diabetics have increased risk of badly healing damage, especially wrt fragile nerves (toes, eyes, hearing). The increased risk that anyone has for infections and problems when wearing lenses, is only so more dangerous to Diabetics.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#178

Post by benjvi »

This is really awesome, and sounds like a great thing for people with diabetes (if the accuracy issues are solved).

Further down the line, technologies like this could be a great thing for the rest of us too. We all experience peaks and troughs in our blood glucose and in those troughs we often feel tired, without really knowing why. It would be great to be able to have continuous feedback like "your blood glucose spiked and now is low after you drank that bottle of lemonade an hour ago". Something like this would really help people to make better decisions and would be a great boon for general public health.

Re: Introducing our smart contact lens project (for diabetics)

#179

Post by cdash »

zaider wrote: post #159
[deleted] wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

But morganherlocker is talking about glucagon not insulin, but it seems to also be injected into fat. Is it just easier to find fat on a leg?

I think it is just easier for people to slam a needle into a leg anywhere than think about how to inject a needle into someones arm. As above it was stated you don't even need expose skin but can do it through clothes.
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