Being ten years old is hard enough, without having to deal with a life-threatening chronic illness. But if you’re ten and you’ve just found out you have juvenile diabetes, the news is bad on too many levels to count.
Until recently, the choices to manage diabetes were pretty grim: giving yourself lots of shots every day or wearing a pump on your belt, according to Chris Michaud, COO at Continuum, speaking at the recent Design Means Business conference. Yet despite numerous medical advantages to the pump, only 15% of kids chose it. The vast majority opted for shots. Why? Shots could be handled privately, while a pump announced to the world: I’m different.
Working with Insulet, Continuum designed the OmniPod, a revolutionary system that features a tiny, disposable pump with a 3-day insulin supply regulated by a wireless handheld controller. It makes doctors and parents happy because it keeps kids healthy. And it makes kids happy because they can hide it under their clothes—or decorate it to the hilt, if they’re so inclined.
Kids are not the only ones who don’t want to announce to the world that they have a chronic medical condition. Just imagine a job-seeker, for one. The insulin pump was a remarkable, life-saving invention. But the OmniPod takes it one brilliant, human step further, helping kids and others preserve not only their health but their dignity and privacy as well. Sweet.
See more at Continuum.
