It’s 7 a.m.. Your patient wakes up. Her wearable automatically syncs her glucose data with her insulin pump, which discreetly adjusts her basal rate for the day. No finger sticks, no alerts, no drama. Just competent, seamless care, powered by real-time data and robust simulation.
For medical device engineers, this vision isn’t futuristic. It’s fast approaching reality. And in silico modeling is what’s helping make it happen.
Glucose Monitoring Goes Continuous
The era of ‘check and react’ is giving way to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), a revolutionary approach that offers several advantages over the traditional method. With CGM, biosensors track glucose levels in interstitial fluid around the clock, providing a more comprehensive and real-time view of the patient’s condition. These wearables are small, adhesive patches often worn on the abdomen or upper arm, making them convenient and less intrusive for the patient. However, developing these advanced devices is no small feat.
Engineers are using advanced tools like COMSOL Multiphysics to simulate everything from skin-adhesion thermodynamics to the drift of electrochemical sensors, making the development of wearable glucose monitors a reality.
The Closed Loop: Pumps and Algorithms
Pair a CGM with an insulin pump and a predictive dosing algorithm, and you’ve got an “artificial pancreas.” Automatic dosing technology relies on accurate modeling of insulin pharmacodynamics and real-time prediction of blood glucose responses, something COMSOL users can simulate using PDEs and control theory.
Simulation helps answer questions like:
- How fast does insulin diffuse into the bloodstream?
- What’s the system response time after a meal spike?
- How does heat affect pump flow rates?
These factors must be tuned carefully to ensure dosing algorithms don’t overshoot or lag.
The Human Factor
Engineers are not just focusing on the electronics, but also on the person. They are using COMSOL to simulate realistic use conditions, including body temperature variations, sweat accumulation, and motion dynamics, to ensure the devices are adaptable to real life, not just the lab.
The result? More intelligent, safer, more reliable devices that adapt to real life, not just the lab. Contact us today.