Open Letter to Steve Jobs


0

#WeAreNotWaiting | Annual Innovation Summit | D-Data ExChange | Patient Voices Contest

Published in April 2007 by DiabetesMine Founder & Editor Amy Tenderich

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Big news this week, Folks. Apple Inc. has sold its 100-Millionth iPod. Ah, those perfectly aesthetic little high-tech devices for enjoying your music, yes. Which gives me an idea… Why, oh why, do consumers everywhere get the most “insanely great” little MP3 player, while we whose lives depend on medical devices get the clunky stuff of yesteryear? It occurred to me that this is never going to change unless we call on the Gods of Consumer Design to champion our cause. So… I have penned an “Open Letter to Steve Jobs” asking him to tackle the medical device design conundrum on our behalf.

What do you all think? Would you, could you, sign your name to an appeal like this to the Big Man of Consumer Design-ism?

Dear Steve Jobs,

I’m writing to you on behalf of millions of people who walk around wired to little tech devices and won’t leave the

house without them. No, I’m not talking about the iPod — and that’s the point. While your brilliant product line enhances the lifestyle of (100) millions, I’m talking about the little devices that keep us alive, the people with chronic conditions.

Let’s talk about diabetes, the disease that affects 20 million Americans, and I’m one of them.

Whether blood glucose monitor or insulin pump, thanks to the achievements of medical device companies, we can now live a normal life by constantly monitoring and adjusting our blood sugar levels.

But have you seen these things? They make a Philips GoGear Jukebox HDD1630 MP3 Player look pretty! And it’s not only that: most of these devices are clunky, make weird alarm sounds, are more or less hard to use, and burn quickly through batteries. In other words: their design doesn’t hold a candle to the iPod.

Most people on this planet can’t agree on much, but most do agree that Apple knows how to design outstanding high-tech devices. It’s your core expertise. It’s your brand. It’s you and Jonathan Ive.

We are, of course, deeply grateful to the medical device industry for keeping us alive. Where would we be without them? But while they’re still struggling with shrinking complex technologies down to a scale where we can attach them, hard-wired, to our bodies, design kinda becomes an afterthought.

This is where the world needs your help, Steve. We’re people first and patients second. We’re children, we’re adults, we’re elderly. We’re women, we’re men. We’re athletes, we’re lovers.

If insulin pumps or continuous monitors had the form of an iPod Nano, people wouldn’t have to wonder why we wear our “pagers” to our own weddings, or puzzle over that strange bulge under our clothes. If these devices wouldn’t start suddenly and incessantly beeping, strangers wouldn’t lecture us to turn off our “cell phones” at the movie theater.

In short, medical device manufacturers are stuck in a bygone era; they continue to design these products in an engineering-driven, physician-centered bubble. They have not yet grasped the concept that medical devices are also life devices, and therefore need to feel good and look good for the patients using them 24/7, in addition to keeping us alive.

Clearly, we need a visionary to champion this disconnect. We need an organization on the cutting edge of consumer design to get vocal about this issue. Ideally, we need a “gadget guru” like Jonathan Ive to show the medical device industry what is possible.

What we need here is a sweeping change in industry-wide mentality — achievable only if some respected Thought Leader tackles the medical device design topic in a public forum. We therefore implore you, Mr. Jobs, to be that Thought Leader.

We have begun by brainstorming a number of actions that you and/or Apple could take to jumpstart this discussion:

* Sponsor a contest by Apple Inc. for best-designed med device from an independent party, and the winning item will receive a makeover from Jonathan Ive himself

* Conduct a “Med Model Challenge”: the Apple design team takes several existing medical devices and demonstrates how to “pimp” them to be more useful and cool

* Establish Apple Med Design School – offer a course on consumer design concepts to selected engineers from leading pharma companies

We need a creative mind like yours to help change the world, again. We, the undersigned, call upon you to take action now.

Yours Truly,

DDD (Digital Device Dependent)

———— END ————-

The Open Letter 10 Years Later: Read About Diabetes Innovation Milestones

Archived Comments

elinor|2007-04-09

Where do I sign?Absolutely first rate idea!!

Jana|2007-04-09

Once again, Amy, you hit the nail on the head! I will be the first to admit that I chose the Minimed pump over the Animas partially because in my opinion it is slightly better looking…

Felix Kasza|2007-04-09

“Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint” — MephistoI am sorry to report that I disagree. You are welcome to the iPump, but I’ll stick with the stuff that takes years and years to go through testing, and that therefore looks as if it had been designed years ago. Which it was, after all.Not to mention that life-sustaining devices are the _last_ thing that I want to see coming out of the Reality Distortion Firld enveloping Cupertino.Cheers,Felix.

elinor|2007-04-09

Where do I sign?Absolutely first rate idea!!

Jana|2007-04-09

Once again, Amy, you hit the nail on the head! I will be the first to admit that I chose the Minimed pump over the Animas partially because in my opinion it is slightly better looking…

Felix Kasza|2007-04-09

“Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint” — MephistoI am sorry to report that I disagree. You are welcome to the iPump, but I’ll stick with the stuff that takes years and years to go through testing, and that therefore looks as if it had been designed years ago. Which it was, after all.Not to mention that life-sustaining devices are the _last_ thing that I want to see coming out of the Reality Distortion Firld enveloping Cupertino.Cheers,Felix.

michael arrington|2007-04-09

best idea I’ve heard all day. 🙂

ceeque|2007-04-10

great great idea, though I have to admit, the design principles of some recent diabetic equipment looks good but does`nt last…

Ernesto Jardim|2007-04-10

Good idea, how can we make this visible to Apple ? messages to Apple ?BTW this article was mentioned in techcrunch.EJ

Betsy|2007-04-10

Amen sista! The day the iPhone was introduced, my boss and I had this same conversation. Good design is a beautiful thing! If only all of life’s necessities were integrated into one little device. I know I would be a lot more gung ho about a pump if the interface reflected Mac OS X! And if you could listen to your favorite tunes while emailing the doc your numbers all while getting a long run in???? And you wouldn’t have to figure out how to attach it to your body…Ah, if only…

Fred Oliveira|2007-04-10

This sort of problem isn’t trivial to tackle, and I personally don’t think Apple is the solution, but the real companies doing the design are – IDEO comes to mind immediately. Naturally the end-result is an Apple product, but the design for the iPod came from several other sources.All this to say I disagree with the idea of making this an apple-centric effort, but am all for coming up with creative ways to get the design community thinking about medical device design and efficiency. That would be a good thing. Addressing Steve Jobs (who I obviously admire, but is definitely not the creative behind the form factor or interaction of the iPod) is going the popular eye-catching way, not the result-returning way.I’d love to tackle this problem, because I know quite a few people who would benefit from such an effort. Johnathan Ive is talented, but he shouldn’t be the ultimate judge for any product beside the apple iLife scope.

af|2007-04-10

Apple is unlikely to respond. You’d likely do better in approaching the designers of the device themselves. Why not contact an innovator like Tony Faddel directly?

peter|2007-04-10

Steve Jobs is about results. We speak of 20 million folks in the US who have diabetes…any idea what the global number is? I’d have to imagine the market is large enough as is the need.There is also an innovation firm in Philadelphia who have done some work in this space that goes beyond glucose monitoring and gets into the food monitoring space. SFGT.At any rate, send the letter to Apple and the editor of his hometown paper…you never know!!!!

Ronald Northrip|2007-04-10

Perhaps an email. He keeps an open email address and many people send him letters all the time. I’m sure there is a staff that reads most of it, but you’ll likely get a response. I did.sjobs@mac.com or sjobs@apple.comI think both work. Good luck.

Journeywoman|2007-04-10

I love it!Couldn’t agree more.

Bernard Farrell|2007-04-10

Can I be a naysayer.There are many in the design field that don’t think that highly of the iPod. I think that Apple has is the coolness factor.Have you tried to use an iPod that has 1,000 songs on it? The user interface is actually pretty lousy. And don’t even attempt to listen to classical music on it. The small amount of screen display makes it almost impossible to pick out a specific track.Despite which, we do have an iPod. Because the alternatives aren’t much better.Amy, this is not to take away from the point of your post. I agree with the issues you raise. As, I believe, does Ruppert over on aiming for grace.I’d like to see the same letter addressed to Bill Buxton, who really knows about design issues. And he might actually listen. (I don’t think you’d get much of a response from Steve Jobs.)As I was writing, my Dexcom (http://www.bernardfarrell.com/blog/blogger.html) buzzed loudly and beeped in my pocket. Definitely there’s lots of room for improvement will all of these devices we depend on for our lives.Our problem is that the device creators have satisfied our basic needs and then just stopped. We have Functionality and Reliability but none of the other design needs (page 106 of the book Universal Principles of Design) of Usability, Proficiency, and most importantly, Creativity.

Scott|2007-04-10

Design seems to be the last thing even considered when they make these devices. I agree with Bernard that the iPod isn’t necessarily the greatest design but has a coolness factor fueling it. But I would like to remind you of what has happened since competition entered the market. For many years, Minimed was the only player in town. But a startup called Animas (now part of Johnson & Johnson) did introduce design changes with a menu-driven device as opposed to the old Minimed 508. Now, they all have menu-driven controls. But it wouldn’t have happened without competition. The same holds true in the insulin market, which is really an oligopoly with little incentive to incorporate good design into their products.I’m not sure Steve Jobs is the appropriate person to write to, but you might try William C. Weldon, the CEO of J&J or Arthur D. (Art) Collins Jr., CEO of Medtronic.

Steve M|2007-04-10

I have to disagree with Bernard’s comments above concerning the iPod’s interface, even with thousands of songs. I have no trouble using a nano for my music. You personally may not like it, but it doesn’t mean the design is poor. Coolness factor, as you put it, hardly sells 100 million iPods, there is substance there. Those in the “design field” who ignore this, are probably the ones designing products that aren’t selling.I do agree that there are many markets that are underserved by designers and engineers, but I disagree that Apple should be involved at all in solving them. Apple is good at what they do, precisely because they know what they’re good at, and stick to it. You cannot take Apple and smack them into every situation and expect amazing things.However, you can apply their design philosophy in any situation, and expect results. Others just need to step up and champion the cause, as you have done here.

Nancy Bohannon MD|2007-04-10

I agree wholeheartedly! It might help people be more willing to be more assertive in their diabetes care.

Matt Stuhff|2007-04-10

You got linked to on Techcrunch. Woot. Awesome ideas. You make excellent points and would be more than willing to sign this letter. I’ve had diabetes for going on 14 years now and although the meters have gotten smaller, they still lack a lot of the modern design elements.

Cath|2007-04-10

This is a brilliant idea! Whether it gets Apple’s attention or not, you will certainly have gotten a new discussion started about improving the design and usability of medical devices.

Manny Hernandez|2007-04-10

I think that Amy’s biggest accomplishment with this post of hers has been to shed light on two things that are essential:1) Bringing attention to diabetes as a true issue, one that is lived by 20 million of us, yet seems to be continually brushed aside and underfunded by the government (this administration, at least) in favor of other uses for our tax money. Getting linked from the home page of TechCrunch is certainly a hit and one that she deserves a lot of credit for, because that is publicity for the cause that can’t be bought.2) Insulin pumps and meters indeed need help to make them more usable and, while personal preferences for or against Apple can be understandable, the important thing is that this need be brought to the forefront like it Amy is doing.KUDOS to you and for all you do for diabetics, Amy!P.S. I am digging this too: the more exposure to the issue, the merrier.

Davin Peterson|2007-04-10

The iPod isn’t the only video MP3 player on the market. It unfairly dominates the market. Check out the Creative Zen Vision:M, which is kills the iPod with it’s high resoultion screen – 262,000 vs. iPod’s 62,000 colors, supports more video formats, has a built in FM-Radio/Recorder and Microphone for voice recording. You can even have background wallpaper instead of the iPod’s boring white screen.

Mary|2007-04-10

Of the five ipods we’ve owned in my family, two have been defective and were replaced under warranty, one succumbed shortly after the warranty expired, and all five have required periodic resets to correct software glitches. In the fifteen years I’ve been using an insulin pump, I haven’t needed to send one in for repair. Although I love my ipod, I’d never want to stake my life on it!

dave|2007-04-10

Scott said, ‘Coolness factor, as you put it, hardly sells 100 million iPods….’How many pairs of bell bottom jeans were sold because of coolness? Don’t discount coolness. ipod designs are terrible but they’re better than the other 2 or 3 main designs.I think Apple is the wrong company to approach with this idea. It’s an awesome conversation – extending usability to medical devices – but Apple isn’t the company to solve this problem.Apple products look cool but cool isn’t what you want in a medical device. You want usability.

Manny Hernandez|2007-04-10

FYI, I just passed this along to someone I know in Apple.Also, when I went to digg the story, I found the TechCrunch article had already been dugg. Here’s the link, so you guys can digg it too:http://digg.com/hardware/iPod_v_Insulin_Pump

Ben Kamens|2007-04-10

Sign me up. I’ve been talking about Apple redesigning my insulin pump for the last 5 years. People like Woz and Jonathan Ives could make these things soooo much smaller and infinitely cooler.

Emily|2007-04-10

I would be in line for a hot pink iPump! I’m 23 and in the best shape of my life, but now I have a huge pump hanging off of me at all times…it could definitely use an upgrade.P.S. You talked about people having their “pagers” at their own weddings…mine’s coming up soon! Anyone have diabetic/pumping bride advice? I’d love to hear!

Todd Clare|2007-04-10

Absolutely. I’ve got a Minimed pump, which is sore need of help. great features. great product. lousy interface and form factor.

Bernard Farrell|2007-04-10

You might also find this article worth a read – The Myth of the instant iPod revolution (http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2007/04/the_myth_of_the.html).It’s not simply design that makes this product successful. It’s that combined with coolness, combined with a software platform that makes it easy to purchase and add songs.I did send a note to Bill Buxton and he had an interesting perspective. I may blog about this later.

adam|2007-04-10

Any new design,for an insulin pump, it seems to me, would have to appease two groups.First, it would have to please its users. A remote controller could have the look and feel of an iPod–rounded corners, the wheel, immediate visual feedback, and occasional audio feedback, possibly through a tiny earpod.Next, the design would have to please every person NOT using the pump. To everyone else, it should be invisible.It seems to me that the best way to get Apple Computer Company’s proprietary user interface on other devices would be for Apple to license the user interface to other companies as a general user interface. That way, any person could use the iPod’s superb design to remotely control media devices/players, streaming media on computers, or medical life-support devices. Apple would profit by allowing its proprietary interface to become a universal user interface for remote control of machinery on a per-user license fee.The interface could be implemented through Bluetooth or some other wireless format.Whether Apple can broadly license its proprietary user interface while maintaining its reputation for high quality in machinery remains an open question for each potential licensee.

Longbow|2007-04-10

Personally, I wouldnt buy a medical device that was made/designed by Apple. not with their track record of faulty/ malfunctioning devices. Maybe if AMD made it though

Ann Barker|2007-04-10

Maybe it is worth trying a system like http://www.dhealth.net and giving them feedback. Free and already pretty cool. No ads.

Acer|2007-04-10

They’re asking Apple to aesthetically design the casing folks, not come up with the innards of the thing that actually do the important medical work. Beyond the outside, and potentially guiding a UI, I think it’s a stretch to say that it would be an “Apple Product”. I think those worrying about reliability and random bugs/errors of a device like this are a bit off of the point.

AmyT|2007-04-10

Thank you, Acer. Right on!

Adam|2007-04-10

I’m a diabetic myself and also agree with you but… mp3 devices are made mostly not to be more confortable, but more stylsish and with neater applications. I think that the little devices we use are as much as a pain we have to carry with us, than making money out of “cooler” devices by apple.What I really agree is on making applications that are compatible with ipods. Like measurements and schedules and units of insulint and things like that, rather then making money out of deaseses.What sure should be in process is the way to eliminate diabetes rather then making devices to show our family and friends how cool it is to have it.This is my personal opinion.

Jay Nielson|2007-04-10

THANK YOU! I got my first pump today and I understand everything that you’re talking about. AMEN.

chicagorado|2007-04-10

The primary focus of the insulin pump and glucose meter is to help treat a disease by being reliable, accurate, and precise. In fact, these devices are becoming smaller, easier to use, and more appealing, but lag behind in current styling because the designs on the market are a number of years old due to extensive testing and federal regulations (which is a good thing). It seems like time would be better spent lobbying to the drug companies that create these devices to improve their designs, rather than reaching out to Steve Jobs. Do you think that Steve Jobs and Apple really want that kind of liability anyways?Speaking of design, there is a physical limit on how small an insulin pump can get because there is a specific amount of insulin needed to treat diabetes. It is ridiculous to think that an insulin pump can be the size of a nano. Also, the pump that I am familiar with (Medtronic MiniMed) can go at least 6 weeks with a single AA battery, which easily blows the battery life of an ipod out of the water.I’m not trying to be a complete pessimist either though. Do I think that medical devices could be better? Yes. Should we ask Steve Jobs to design these devices? No. Let Apple do what they’re good at and the drug companies do what they’re good at (in both cases, robbing us blind). My suggestion is to try working with Steve Jobs the philanthropist, not the designer.

birdie|2007-04-10

Amy,you so rock! You speak the truth and you have the guts to turn your beliefs into actions. Design matters, aesthetics matter. We assume the insides are going to work, now let’s spend some more time and energy on the outside, so that we can move beyond the pump as simply a “medical device” to something larger like a “health and life enhancer” for people with diabetes. Good function and good design are not an either/or proposition.And you know how it warms my heart to see such a robust discussion about pump design. Agree or disagree with asking Apple to help, the point is that we’ve had to accept what we’re given, rather than be consulted about what we want. Everyone is grateful for the amazing technology of the pump. I’d like to see a day when we can also be proud of its design.Thanks for your clarion voice on the subject and thanks for having the chops for getting it out to a wider audience. Like I said, you rock!

Anne|2007-04-10

I think a more slick interface iwould be fabulous, even though I’m pretty happy with my waterproof animas pump. Whoever designs it, it still has go through FDA testing, which is a lot more rigorous with things like reliability than whatever procedures a consumer entertainment product would go through. I think it’s a great idea to get some people on board who have more time to really consider a great user interface.What I would really like is to condense all of my electronic D-gadgets into one device so my purse isn’t brimming over all of the time. And maybe somehow introduce an option of withdrawing insulin from the pump with a syringe in case of a pump malfunction so I don’t have to carry an extra vial everywhere.I’m sure they would get more than enough feedback from this group!

BillyWarhol|2007-04-10

I may have Great News for U Amy & all the Diabetics*We may not need Steve Jobs Apple or the Oranges i practised on with a Needle 35 Years ago*Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabsBy DANIEL MARTIN – More by this author » Last updated at 00:20am on 11th April 2007Comments CommentsHopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections.Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.scroll down for moreinsulinA new scientific breakthrough could spell the end of insulin injectionsThe researchers say it could herald the start of a revolution in treating type one diabetes, which affects 300,000 patients in Britain.Type one diabetics have to regularly inject themselves with the hormone insulin to control their blood sugar levels.The new research has emerged a month after it was revealed that the number of British children under the age of five who had developed type one diabetes had risen fivefold in the past 20 years.A team of US and Brazilian scientists gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by injections of stem cells drawn from their own blood.After treatment, 14 of the 15 were able to put away their injection pens after losing their insulin dependence.And so far, one patient has been free of insulin dependency for 35 months.Study leader Dr Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paolo said he had rushed out his findings because of the positive results.He said: “Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease.”Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin dependence and treatment-related toxicity was low, with no mortality.”Type one diabetes is caused by insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas being destroyed by the patient’s own immune system.Stem cells are immature cells that can develop to become a range of different adult cells.In the latest trial, patients’ immune systems were suppressed using powerful drugs – to eliminate the white blood cells that were attacking the pancreas.The patient was then injected with a chemical which loosened stem cells from their bone marrow. These were filtered out, collected and later injected back into the patient’s bloodstream.Some of the 14 patients responded more quickly than others, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Researchers believe the stem cells developed into new white blood cells which did not attack the pancreatic beta cells.But they admit there are other possible interpretations – the stem cells could have developed into new beta cells in the pancreas. Or something might have happened to stop the existing beta cells being destroyed.The study only included a small number of patients between 14 and 31, and did not monitor their progress for very long.Because of the nature of the study, it is not known if further stem cell injections would be required at a later date.And unlike most medical trials there was no comparison with patients left untreated or only given drugs to suppress their immune system.Malcolm Alison, professor of stem cell biology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said: “In principle this is a cure because these people developed long-term control of their glucose levels.”But these patients haven’t been followed up long enough, so we cannot yet be sure.”Dr Ian Frame, research manager at Diabetes UK, said: “This is interesting new research that demonstrates that there may have been a substantial improvement in beta cell fundtion. However we would wish to avoid false hope based on the very preliminary nature of these results.”This study had a very small number of participants and importantly did not include a randomised control group for comparison of results.”Also, as the researchers say, those who took part have not been sufficiently followed up to find out whether or not the improvements have continued.”All these issues need to be addressed through more research before there are any conclusive findings in this area.”There have been several pointers towards this latest discovery.Studies have alreday shown that bone marrow transplants given to cancer patients also seemed to reverse certain auto-immune disease such as type one diabetes. Bone marrow is full of stem cells.Later it was found that treating patients with stem cells from their own blood could benefit individuals with a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Chron’s disease

Sunil S Chiplunkar|2007-04-10

Watch out biz folks – Amy’s landmark post has brought out what internet is all about. That is the internet is all about communication and convergence.Health is no more under the purview of medical and paramedical professional and the pharma companies alone. It is the community’s responsibility.The era of convergence is all out to bring in software algorithms, microchips in medical devices in larger scale and high tech – high design in to health.Welcome to health 3.0 revolution! www.pharmaceuticalshealthcare.blogspot.com

Martien van Steenbergen|2007-04-11

Excellent idea! Sure hope that Steve bites. And while at it, diabetes software can use an upgrade as well. First half of 2006 a small team of students have been working on Cheetah—a fully distributed self-learning (smart) peer-to-peer community-based diabetes open source software systemSee:http://wiki.aardrock.com/Cheetah_Project_Proposalhttp://wiki.aardrock.com/Cheetah_Work_Space

Sarah|2007-04-11

Emily: I am also getting married (congrats to you!)!I am having my dress custom designed, and it will have a special pocket on the inside for my pump. You can also have a pocket added to an existing dress, and it shouldn’t cost much. The placement will depend on the style of the dress and accessibility.Many people also use garters with pouches (very easy to find nowadays) and put their pump in there. I find this doesn’t work well for me, but some like it.Another idea is to thread your pump through your dress and carry it in a fancy little purse slung on your shoulder. It would make it easily accessible for meals, but it might be very awkward. Or wear it in your bra (I do this from time to time).As for the topic, I wear a grey Cozmo pump, and while it doesn’t play music, it looks pretty decent to me. If technology and creativity could be combined, and Apple could create a “cool” pump, I would buy it, but the truth is, I would rather have money spent on making the technology better. Insulin pump technology is still pretty primitive compared to other scientific advancements in society, although it has improved greatly.I think we can ask for cooler looking blood glucose machines, if not pumps. The problem is, most (Type 2) diabetics are not on insulin, or if they are, they are on Lantus only. Type 1 diabetics all need insulin, but they are the minority of diabetics (5%-10%) and not all use or want a pump.Either way, even though I prefer a cure 😉 I guess a cool meter/pump will have to do in the meantime…

Sarah|2007-04-11

P.S. I agree with Acer too. The REAL point is to make pumps “LOOK” better. Apple will not design the inner working of the pump, they will collaborate with pump companies to make them LOOK cooler. At least from what I gather.It would be nice if they could add some “special features” though! 😉

Rob Tillaart|2007-04-11

Two thought came up:1) Aren’t there design students out there who love to redesign such devices?2) An Apple a day keeps the doctor away ;)Most important signal I think is that a well designed interface can decrease the amount of error’s.regards,rob

luvmybirdies|2007-04-11

I think Amy has done a good job of getting some attention brought to this subject, but I have to say that I haven’t really had any complaints about my pump since I got it. Sure, it’s not as cute as it probably could be, but the important thing is that it gets the job done. I’m not even sure I would want a bright pink or green pump – wouldn’t that just draw more attention to it? I prefer mine to be as invisible as possible. I’ve got a black Animas IR-1200 and I have NEVER had problems with beeping or buzzing and drained batteries so I feel very lucky. I must say that I am just happy that the pump exists – no more injections!

flargh|2007-04-11

Awesome idea, Amy! What’s more, I’d really like to see a Mac OS X-compatible glucometer with some decent software.

Juan Antonio|2007-04-11

I wholeheartedly agree with this letter and would like to add that the user interface (the OS) of the pumps, at least the MiniMed, also need reworking. I, too, chose the MM because it looks the sleekest and compact and least like a medical device. I like the idea of the Cozmo, but I don’t get the asymmetry. WHEN have you ever seen a consumer electronics item that is not symmetric? Thanks for writing this letter. Hopefully it will inspire some change somewhere.

Wookie|2007-04-11

This letter, and especially the comments, appear to be guilty of some of the same thinking that leads to poorly designed products in the first place, ie; considering ‘design’ as something that is done to a product to give it more aesthetic kudos. The general public thinks of design as being synonymous with ‘styling’, when that is in fact only one part of the designers remit. Function and usability, areas which in the industrial design arena cross-over to an extent with the work of the engineer, are also intrinsic large parts of the process and most truly great products are somewhat more than a sexy-looking skin in a svelte form-factor.The reason Apple turn out well designed products is not because they have great designers (although they do), but because they understand how to use design where much of the industry does not. There are numerous great designers out there who are fully aware of the problems in medical devices and other product areas but who are not given enough prominence in the product development cycle to make a contribution that would help. Unfortunately in many cases they are just called in to style something at the end of the process and to do so within financial and physical constraints that are only in place because they have not been consulted early enough in the process.It doesn’t take someone like Apple to show the medical industry how to design stuff, the responsibility is in the hands of the medical industry to give designers a greater degree of influence and freedom than they are often allowed. There do exist great examples of design in the medical world that are the result of exactly this philosophy. The problem is not specific to the medical industry though, it is more generally to do with industry’s reluctance to invest in design, those who do usually win – ie; Apple, Dyson.Also, to pick up on some comments about reliability, build quality etc. – a well designed product will obviously take all this into account, but don’t blame the design for poor quality assurance, manufacture or after-sales support – areas covered by other arms of a business. Even the greatest design can be laid low if build badly using cheap components, Apple is striking a commercial balance, a medical company would have higher emphasis on reliability over cost.If you desire better designed products your efforts would be best placed supporting design industry bodies (such as the Design Council in the UK) in their efforts to get better investment in design across industry in general.

Jason Mazzotta|2007-04-11

Other peoiple may have covered what I’m about to say but, I believe wearable medical devices are designed as well as they can be. One thing you have to take into consideration is that these devices have to serve as many people as possible. You mention the Nano and a glucose monitor. Poorly managed diabetes can lead to vision problems. I don’t think the iPod Nano’s screen size would serve those people too well. Similar arguments can be made for the obnoxious beeps and older people who might not have very good hearing and suffer type II diabetes.

Inkling|2007-04-11

I can understand the problem. I wrote the manual for an ultrasound device that MDs use to scan bladder fulness, the upscale version of one used by people who have to be cathed to urinate. The engineers, bless their hearts, had done almost no thinking about how the image should appear. On screen left and right meant the opposite of what up and down meant. If it had slipped out that way, users would have gone nuts. Patients aren’t the only ones troubled by bad UIs.Don’t forget that iPods can also read data from joggers. That same inexpensive technology could send data from an insulin pump (or whatever) for storage on an iPod and later readback by a computer at home or at an MDs office.

Duncan|2007-04-12

This is possibly the most insane idea I have ever heard of. Apple have no experience of designing for the medical field, its nothing like designing an iPod in any way at all. Designing a device which has a primary function of entertainment and one for keeping someone alive follow very very different design criteria and focus points at all stages of production and this is not easily adaptable.The only good that can come of your letter is not to pursuade Jobs to come on board (which he won’t for the above mentioned reasons) but to highlight to the existing companies who quite rightly have not focused on style over function that they might like to concentrate a little more time on the aesthetics of such a device.

Allie Beatty|2007-04-13

I agree with Emily — and with Amy’s quest for better hardware 😉 My MiniMed pump isn’t drawing the high-tech head turns it once did (waaay back in 1999!) LoL Yeah, c’mon money-makers. Diabetes is booming. Hop on the bus with something nano-nifty and mega-thrifty 😉 We know you’re listening — and we thank you for your support! 😉

Eveline|2007-04-14

Kudos to all who have replied. I work for a medical device company that markets an insulin pump. Let me reassure you that design was one of the key areas researched during the development phase. The fact is, medical devices are somewhat limited by the functions that they must perform and the increasing amount of features (safety and otherwise) that have become requirements in todays market. If you are an end-user of a medical device and have suggestions for improvements, I strongly suggest that you call the manufacturer of that device and let them know! There are mechanisms which help bring those suggestions to the designers and will be incorporated in new product designs. The medical device industry is out there listening, just let us know.(and by the way, I think involving designers with a history of successful, intuitive and attractive design in the medical device industry is brilliant!)

Kiki Lavier|2007-04-24

There are many other companies besides Apple that makes small MP3 players. In fact, Apple doesn’t even manufacture their own MP3 players.So, why the focus on Steve Jobs or Apple. Some people have the illusion that Apple means some “public policy” rather than the reality that they are but a commercial interest–one of many.

Florian|2007-05-05

While we’re at it, I would like to see a glucose meter built into my laptop.Florian (Type 1, dx 1967)

Timothy Reid|2007-05-08

I work with a variety of insulin pumps on a regular basis. While I agree that there is a certain appeal to having a nice design to a medical device, this should remain secondary to functionality. Remember, these devices have to be used by many people of all ages from different cultures and backgrounds. Not everyone is of the Ipod generation. The FDA plays a big role in the approval of these devices. “Cool” is not a characteristic that will move the FDA…..reliability and functionality will. There are a few things that I would like to see insulin pumps do. One is take on a few of the characteristics of a cell phone. I see people all of the time who have the time set wrong on their pump. Either am/pm is reversed or the time is off all together. Wouldn’t it be nice if the pump picked up the cell towers time signal and kept the pump current. This might be one more reason to quit wearing a wristwatch. I think BlueTooth is here to stay. It would be nice if the pump could data dump to a PDA so you could trend analyze on the fly. Right now, pumps that download have some proprietary cables that you have to have available. The other thing BlueTooth would enable would be cell phone connectivity. This would make it possible to forward this information to your physician for review without the computer interface. This could also be set up as a remote alarm….say maybe if the pump has not had a button pushed in X hours it would signal the cell phone to call for help. Parents that are worried about their kids at school with their pump could set it up to call them if blood sugars fall outside a set range. If we could get the glucose meters/sensors to agree on a BlueTooth platform, this would make any meter/sensor compatable with any pump and also make downloading and transmitting data easy and seamless. Just some thoughts. I enjoyed the conversation above. Best regards.

Jeff at www.thenewsroom.com|2007-06-30

Maybe that’ll be his next thing: http://thenewsroom.com/details/453236?c_id=wom-bc-js

minxlj|2007-08-29

Brilliant idea – as a child, for years I was ashamed of carrying around my ugly asthma inhaler until a more portable, usable version was designed. Suddenly someone had paid attention to making the thing easy to use! Design and usability are integral development stages to every product, and manufacturers should never forget that.

DesignerEngineer|2008-01-15

I am one of those people that this is written to. I am a mechanical design engineer for a blood glucose monitor company. And I agree that most of the meters on the market need some help. But there’s also the fact that we give them away. Sure we make money on the strips, but a lot of cost decisions are based on the fact that they’re free. There’s also some disfunction in the design process inside the company and it’s hard to get everyone to agree what needs to happen and to get the good creativity in the process from the beginning. There’s a lot of focus on schedule and getting the next meter out – and it does take a lot of testing to prove the reliability of these things. But we absolutely would love user and designer input. Make a blog specifically on meter design. Send your ideas to us – you’re creative, you can find our contact info. We’re working on it.

Techcrunch|2007-04-09

Apple iPod v. The Insulin Pump Amy Tenderich writes one of (if not the) most influential blogs about diabetes, Diabetes Mine. Noting the news today about Apple selling its 100 millionth iPod and praising the exceptional industrial design of Apple products, she asks for Apples…

Dress To Survive|2007-04-10

A Plea For Sane IndustrialDesign Amy Tenderich is a blogger. Shes also a diabetic. The gadgets she needs to live are clunky and outmoded. They look like some basement hacker threw them together with the amazing side-effect of keeping someone alive. A purely accidental side-effe…

manage to experience|2007-04-10

Different kind of iPod

Unsought Input|2007-04-10

Who Cares About the iPod, Where is the Apple Glucose Meter? A few months ago I was looking at blood sugar meters and cholesterol testers for family members. I have had my blood tested for various things throughout my life and Ive seen the standard drugstore-issue glucose monitors in action, so I had a …

Richard Lennox|2007-04-11

100 million IPods but one big design mistake. This week sees the sale of the Apple IPod reach over 100,000,000. Yes that is 100 million. To be honest my IPod is not a statement or fashion accessory, it is a tool I use day in day out. It helps me relax and concentrate at the same …

Three Minds @ Organic|2007-08-17

Charmr: An iPod for Diabetics In response to an open letter to Steve Jobs, experience design firm Adaptive Path has taken up the call to come up with a design for a device that would transform how diabetics manage their condition. They pulled together a…

Diabetes Mine – the all things diabetes blog » Blog Archive » The 2nd Annual DiabetesMine┢ Design Challenge|2008-06-10

[…] was just about this time last year that I posted my Open Letter to Steve Jobs, calling for the gods of consumer design to help revolutionize design of diabetes devices. This […]

sohbet|2008-06-19

hi, great idea, I know I would be a lot more gung ho about a pump if the interface reflected Mac.

Future of diabetes devices could be a ‘Charmr’|2008-06-25

[…] writes the blog DiabetesMine.com, is one of 20 million Americans diagnosed with the illness. In a post in April, Tenderich wrote an “Open Letter […]

beingdiabetic.co.nz » dia-Phone.|2008-07-13

[…] a technology lover and a proud iPod Touch owner I would be chuffed to bits. I know Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine started a letter to Steve Jobs of Apple earlier this year, I must follow up on how she got […]

The future of the insulin pump — saltyandsweet.org|2008-07-16

[…] reading Amy’s Open Letter to Steve Jobs, over at Diabetes Mine, regarding the lack of I have come up with items I would love to see […]

ProductDesigner|2008-08-15

I’m product designer working on the next generation of an insulin pump. I’m glad I came across this post, because this is exactly the challenge I’m facing right now. I would love to here some specifics on frustrations with the current pumps…looks, interface, functionality, wearability…etcWhatever we design today, it will have an influence on the next pump in the market.

Randy Christenson|2008-09-09

Yes, yes, yes…please help us!

Insulin Pump by Jiri Bukvald » Yanko Design|2008-11-04

[…] a ripple effect can cause all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald […]

Softcraze: Technology Journal, Gadget News » OLED Display Keeps The Insulin Pumping|2008-11-05

[…] all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald attempts to assuage these problems with his […]

YY Design » Blog Archive » OLED Display Keeps The Insulin Pumping|2008-11-13

[…] a ripple effect can cause all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald […]

I would like to make my iPhone into a glucose meter | The Diabetic Lifestyle Journal|2008-12-15

[…] the iPhone. This adapter would allow me to insert blood testing strips so I can test my sugars. Steve Jobs is not going to be creating medical devices anytime soon. Wake up people, these companies don’t care about design. They care about selling testing […]

Matt|2009-02-05

AMEN!

Jobs in Pakistan|2009-02-11

Great idea i also agreed with you.I think there are many manufacture copines in all over the world running a lot of business from his product.

Jo|2009-02-11

Great idea and concept. However, I have had a couple iPods that have failed on me. Two weeks ago, my brand-new Paradigm went into a lockdown that they couldn’t decipher. Hence, how do we take two great devices and marry them into something that is fail-safe, small, has a continuous glucose sensor integrated into the cannula?Point being is that if a collaboration could take place between Apple and MiniMed, there is great possibility for us… just get the damned thing into the market… would hate to wait another 3 years.Love your page & blog… keep it up.Jo =)

Camille Johnson|2009-03-03

Write legislation that makes insulin and all diabetic supplies be generic-required in every state. It is outrageous that insulin and test strips are still so expensive. Do legislators know how much it costs to test the required 4-8 times per day?

Oscar|2009-03-20

Hey, Amy.Greets from Spain. I read this post last year, and remember how wonderful idea I thought you had. Last week I was following Apple’s keynote about the upcoming iPhone SDK 3.0 via Twitter. Then a tweet appeared announcing somebody from Lifescan was going on stage to present a new application. I had my glucometer in front of me. It’s a OneTouch… from Lifescan. First thought I had was: “This is gonna be huuuuuuuge…”. Second one was “Amy has been heard”.That night I watched the video and it’s so damned close to what I thought is a perfect monitoring device that I can’t wait to lay my hands on it :). I already think the iPhone is the best gadget I’ve ever had (and gonna have, but Apple often proves me wrong 😀 ), but Lifescan app is going to skyrocket my appreciation on it.Just my thoughts. Thanks for the blog, the ideas and everything. Keep inspiring!!!

“Jesus Phone 3.0” touches diabetic blogger — RoughlyDrafted Magazine|2009-03-21

[…] a San Francisco blogger who maintains Diabetes Mine for people living with diabetes, penned an open letter to Steve Jobs, asking Apple to help apply the design savvy of the iPod to the medical devices that […]

ahmet maranki|2009-03-22

Keep up the excellent work! Your website helps to keep me from boredom as well.

Sarah DiVello|2009-03-24

I contacted the Trade Show Manager at Apple to see if they plan to showcase any diabetes-related iPhone apps or any Tech devices that are in the works related to diabetes at the Diabetes Educators (AADE) Expo in August. She informed me that they plan to save money on showcasing their products to educators/professionals at tradeshows and instead focus on their retail outlets. What a shame…Not sure about you but I never go in the Apple stores.

People with diabetes use iPods. | Khürt|2009-04-02

[…] Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design […]

Joe|2009-04-22

Doesn’t Steve Jobs himself have a health problem with his pancreas?

bravosmith|2009-05-15

Great idea i also agreed with you. I think there are many manufacture copines in all over the world running a lot of business from his product.Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these. We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers.——————————————————– Bravosmithoffice jobs

iPhone facilitando a vida dos diabéticos | inovaTIvidade|2009-07-03

[…] foi uma resposta da Apple a uma blogueira diabética que, há mais de 1 ano atrás, escreveu uma carta aberta para o Steve Jobs onde, em resumo, pedia para que ele, de alguma forma, contribuísse para a melhoria do design dos […]

Ben|2009-07-07

I must say that I agree with previous comments in objection to this idea. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate iPod’s innovation in the arenas of user functionality and aesthetics. But as others have said, it has been accomplished at the expense of reliability. This is not a luxury that medical device companies have. I work for a company that designs implants and I must say that the comments that the designers of these implants are out of date is ridiculous. These devices incorporate some of the most complicated and state-of-art technologies in the world in order to SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES! Apple has the luxury of prioritizing aesthetics and user friendliness because the built in functionality is VERY simple relative to medical devices. As well, their market allows them to be much more iterative in their designs and therefore quicker to respond to market trends. The process medical devices go through to be approved and market ready is much more complicated and extensive and thus less prone to iteration. I think the fact that this writer is comparing medical devices to iPods is VERY naive and not a fair comparison based on very different markets. You can’t make a valid comparison between a life saving, FDA regulated, medical device and a consumer electronic device. All this being said, it makes sense for medical device manufacturers to listen to their patients and develop products that address as many of their needs as possible. But with any product there are priorities and with medical devices those priorities will always be functionality and reliability. Especially when people’s lives depend on it.

burs|2009-07-11

i found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me.

Muwasalat.com|2009-07-20

True. Loved it. Great idea. But if just the lobbyists allow APPLE INC. to get into Diabetes market. It will grow. And it will work. Wish it could work. By 2020 watched in documentary or so that out of every 5 Americans 1 would have diabetes. Something like that. It was strikingly out figure.

iPhone facilitando a vida dos diabéticos « Flavio Camilo – Blog de Tecnologia Médica|2009-07-26

[…] foi uma resposta da Apple a uma blogueira diabética que, há mais de 1 ano atrás, escreveu uma carta aberta para o Steve Jobs onde, em resumo, pedia para que ele, de alguma forma, contribuísse para a melhoria do design dos […]

diafine|2009-08-03

What a cool idea. packaging is everything some device manufactures just don’t get it. Glucose Meters don’t have to look like that anymore. It’s a medical device but it’s so consumer based it doesn’t really matter anymore. I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to put on a sexy case onto one of these meters. I wonder why these devices are so practical looking. Do we really want to pay double the price for a meter just because it looks better? What about the strips can we make them look better and charge double and have it do the same thing except sound better. Wonder who’s going to pay for that.

Colin Pye|2009-08-19

Yikes, Ben! First, about the safety concerns. There’s already a model out there for connecting an already-successful product with iPods. Think Nike. The newer Nike running shoes have a transmitter built in to them that will connect to the receiver in the iPod Touch, the iPhone, or the ones that plug into the older models. If you don’t have the shoes, no loss. If you don’t have an iPod, no loss (the shoes still work, believe it or not). But when you have both together, they automagically share information on your running sessions, upload it to your computer when you charge the ‘Pod (or ‘Phone,) and can link it to a global web site where your friends (and, I suppose Doctors) can see your progress over time.I seem to recall that the shoes talk to the iPods over Bluetooth, which opens up many other possibilities. It should be able to communicate with other Bluetooth devices, like cell phones, computers, Playstation 3/Wii game consoles, printers, PDAs, and the list goes on.Bluetooth was intended as an inexpensive and faster replacement for IR communications, so it should be economical enough to use in “free” meters, and does away with the need for special connecting cables. There are simple profiles in place so that a meter could upload a text file with your test results, or a pump could upload a log of it’s activity, with no need to install additional software on the computer (or phone, or, well you get the idea.)It’s been my experience that meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers. They don’t “get” the idea that software can expire just like their test strips. One that comes to mind has programs to link their meters to Palm-based PDAs, however the most recent model their version 1.something program supports was released before the year 2000. Version 3.something is available in their home country, but it’s not going to reach North America until they finish selling their out-of-date copies of the old version. It hasn’t registered with them that people who get the kind of feedback that the programs allow are more likely to test more often, and therefore generate more strip sales for them!There’s a meter on the market that loads a cartridge of 17 test strips at a time. It even has an “acoustic mode”, where it beeps out the reading. The idea is that someone who is visually impaired can more easily use this meter, since they don’t have to handle test strips, or see the results on the screen. There’s one big problem. They forgot about the lancets! The same company has a lancing device that has 6 lancets in an cartridge, and when loading them, there are no exposed sharps, before or after use. It makes sense for them to use that kind of lancing device with the meter I’ve mentioned above, yet the only meter they offer the device with takes individual test strips.In an ideal world, they could integrate the lancets into the test strip cartridge, with a lancet for each test strip, after all, lancets are one-time-use things. There’s enough space in the cartridge to do it. They could pack in their 6-shooter lancing device, making a safe and easy system for the visually challenged user, yet they stick with the single exposed sharps lancet device, and suggest that if you have trouble seeing, or if your hands tend to tremble, that you get someone else to load your lancing device for you. They have released two followups to the meter since then, and have stuck with the single-use lancing device, when they have a better solution available within their own company!I’ve talked to their representatives in person and on the phone, and most of them just don’t get it. Occasionally, I hear, “That sounds like a good idea” but that’s where it ends. Trying to get them to listen is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.It’s not just a problem with one manufacturer, either. I’ve tried others, where a simple firmware change in their meter would improve usability many-fold, yet my words fall on deaf ears. It’s not like it would increase the cost of the device, since it’s a one-time program change that then gets installed in millions of meters. There’s no manufacturing changes needed from the upgrade, except to change the file that gets loaded into the meter when it’s made. It’s a less-costly change than adding new meter colours, which seems to be one of the trends these days.I’m left with the feeling that those who design these things don’t actually use them themselves, something that should be a pre-requisite for this kind of product, even if it’s only for a short term.

Elliott|2009-09-28

I wonder if you folks noticed LifeScan’s demo on the release of version 3 of the iPhone/iTouch software. An existing meter which already speaks bluetooth to a pump can also talk to the i* with this new stuff (not yet available on Earth, apparently).

Magnetic Bar|2009-09-29

Apple is unlikely to respond.

uberVU – social comments|2009-10-24

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by egculbertson: #blankcheck inspired by @diabetesmine: get Apple to design all patient health tech (her orig. open letter here http://bit.ly/1QclAi)…

bed|2009-11-02

True. Loved it. Great idea. But if just the lobbyists allow APPLE INC. to get into Diabetes market. It will grow. And it will work.Wish it could work. By 2020 watched in documentary or so that out of every 5 Americans 1 would have diabetes. Something like that. It was strikingly out figure.

Rozi|2009-11-22

This is great. I was little upset that i can go to see the last comments in this blog so I see this comments is very excellent.

Open letter to Steve Jobs | HypoThesis|2009-12-07

[…] http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/04/an_open_letter_.html […]

Riva Greenberg: Got a Great Diabetes Product Or Application Idea? Apply Here | Twitmerlin – News, Celebs Gossip, Social Media|2010-03-03

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Riva Greenberg: Got a Great Diabetes Product Or Application Idea? Apply Here « Daily News|2010-03-03

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Dan Lock|2010-03-04

There are already people (like me) working on medical device usability. The problems here is that medical devices are not consumer devices – the level of testing required is much higher AND the market is much smaller. If your iPod or iPhone crashes (and mine have, several times) it’s no big deal. If your medical device goes down it could be really serious. That’s not to say progress isn’t, or can’t, be made. I wouldn’t bother asking Apple to help – they don’t have any reason to get involved in such a risky area and open themselves up to litigation etc. You would do better to lobby the device manufacturers and ask them to invest more money in usability. We have the ideas to make these things better but it isn’t easy when big pharma does not always want to invest in it!

Citylab » Blog Archive » Charmr: diabetes devices|2010-03-10

[…] da una lettera aperta che una paziente diabetica, Amy Tenderich, ha scitto a Steve Jobs, pregando il CEO di Apple di […]

Diabetes Mine 2010 Design Challenge | A Sweet Life|2010-03-13

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Diabetes Mine 2010 Design Challenge is Open! « Pharma 2.0|2010-03-22

[…] in the design of tools used by diabetes community. The competition all started as a result of a letter Amy posted on her blog in 2007 to Steve Jobs. She voiced what many in the diabetes community felt about their pumps , pens and monitors: […]

Rob Loughrey|2010-03-25

Sign me up! We need a facebook group so we can get the millions of names required to really make someone notice!

KPSS|2010-04-27

nice letter but Jobs is not read this articles.

A request for a different Apple gadget|2010-05-30

[…] this via Design Observer: An open letter to Steve Jobs with a request for Apple to design a gadget that will save lives. An insulin pump. The problem is […]

What kind of diabetes device would you like to see on the market today? | News 4 Diabetics|2010-06-10

[…] hit the market, and in the throwback 2007 days, I remember Amy Tenderich of Diabetesmine, writing an open letter to apple’s Steve Jobs Imploring him in his ingeniousness maybe create a slick device for the diabetes community ala the […]

What kind of diabetes device would you like to see on the market today? | News 4 Diabetics|2010-06-10

[…] hit the market, and in the throwback 2007 days, I remember Amy Tenderich of Diabetesmine, writing an open letter to apple’s Steve Jobs Imploring him in his ingeniousness maybe create a slick device for the diabetes community ala the […]

What piqued this week…|2010-06-30

[…] Diabetes Mine, a blog covering diabetes, this week put out an open letter to Apple (aka Steve Jobs) to design a better Insulin Pump. Well actually, the call was for a competition to design a better […]

50 Best Diabetes Blogs | Nursing Schools.net|2010-07-19

[…] with diabetes, from what to eat to what to read and everything in between. Recommended posts: “An Open Letter to Steve Jobs” and “Teens with Diabetes: Freedom is Their Secret […]

vic|2010-07-22

ironic that Steve Jobs now has to wear an insulin pump, no???

FirstCallMedical|2010-09-12

wooo.. nice letter man. I was just wondering are these big companies focusing only entertainment industry or will they also work for medical industry. —-Medicine Jobs

Jm Pocard|2010-09-14

Hello, i’ m nurse I would propose a other solution for monitoring glycémia and all data about health. I don’t know how to write Steve Jobs.thank you

dvla|2010-09-23

I would love to think Jobs read this but I am not sure he did. I thought he would get on board with all his kidney problems.

Ottawa Video Production|2010-09-23

I also don’t think meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers but if someone did look out they would make a fortune

John Mitchell|2010-11-29

Thank you very much for a really interesting resource!

haberi|2011-06-25

idea is great . some of my friend already using it. And they are satisfied from the results.

Recent business news|2011-06-25

i want to use this application and searching more details about it. your post helps me. Thanks for it.

Patriots Jersey|2011-08-15

I also don’t think meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers but if someone did look out they would make a fortune

Testing Out the iBGStar — First Plug-In Glucose Meter for the iPhone | The Diabetic Friend|2011-09-30

[…] innovative company that designed iBGStar for Sanofi-Aventis. The AgaMatrix guys have followed my push for iPhone-ish diabetes devices from day one. And now that they’ve actually created the first-ever medical device that actually […]

Julie|2011-10-06

Wow. Smart thinking!

Aaron|2011-10-18

Cheers to a great visionary who stayed ahead of the curve and kept the world guessing as to what he would come up with next!

RN to BSN|2011-10-18

Thanks to the man who took technology to the next level. May his inventions live on forever!

Darence|2012-01-04

Unparalleled accuracy, uenquovical clarity, and undeniable importance!

k tedford|2012-01-28

A contact lens is now being worked on to take glucose readings – it needs to be able to wirelessly send to cloud like the withington scale and back down to pc, iphone etc to an app that can estimate insulin needed along with ability to take pic of food eating – this food app is already available on iphone then if you wear pump send that wirelessly. LETS DREAM BIG want this during my granddaughter’s life span

k tedford|2012-01-28

A contact lens is now being worked on to take glucose readings — it needs to be able to wirelessly send to cloud like the withington scale and back down to pc, iphone etc to an app that can estimate insulin needed along with ability to take pic of food eating — this food app is already available on iphone then if you wear pump send that wirelessly. LETS DREAM BIG want this during my granddaughter’s life span

spirit guides|2012-05-16

Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Thanks!

Kumar|2012-08-08

I believe you have got Apple a new direction to innovate on. Moreover Apple leads the industry or sector wherever it starts its process. Great thinking and excellent writing.

Blogger Round Table Series Session 1: Diabetes Bloggers Find New Purpose, Connections Through Blogging | JDRF WP Test|2012-12-16

[…] In April 2007 I penned an “Open Letter to Steve Jobs,” which reverberated around the mainstream media and blogosphere. It was a rally cry to apply […]

Rethinking diabetes management and care | Scope Blog|2012-12-19

[…] gained a bit of fame in 2007, when you wrote an open letter to the late Steve Jobs with a request to help make over the “clunky” and “clinical” medical […]

People with diabetes use iPods. | Island in the Net|2013-12-31

[…] Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design […]

Published in April 2007 by DiabetesMine Founder & Editor Amy Tenderich

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Big news this week, Folks. Apple Inc. has sold its 100-Millionth iPod. Ah, those perfectly aesthetic little high-tech devices for enjoying your music, yes. Which gives me an idea… Why, oh why, do consumers everywhere get the most “insanely great” little MP3 player, while we whose lives depend on medical devices get the clunky stuff of yesteryear? It occurred to me that this is never going to change unless we call on the Gods of Consumer Design to champion our cause. So… I have penned an “Open Letter to Steve Jobs” asking him to tackle the medical device design conundrum on our behalf.

What do you all think? Would you, could you, sign your name to an appeal like this to the Big Man of Consumer Design-ism?

Dear Steve Jobs,

I’m writing to you on behalf of millions of people who walk around wired to little tech devices and won’t leave the

house without them. No, I’m not talking about the iPod — and that’s the point. While your brilliant product line enhances the lifestyle of (100) millions, I’m talking about the little devices that keep us alive, the people with chronic conditions.

Let’s talk about diabetes, the disease that affects 20 million Americans, and I’m one of them.

Whether blood glucose monitor or insulin pump, thanks to the achievements of medical device companies, we can now live a normal life by constantly monitoring and adjusting our blood sugar levels.

But have you seen these things? They make a Philips GoGear Jukebox HDD1630 MP3 Player look pretty! And it’s not only that: most of these devices are clunky, make weird alarm sounds, are more or less hard to use, and burn quickly through batteries. In other words: their design doesn’t hold a candle to the iPod.

Most people on this planet can’t agree on much, but most do agree that Apple knows how to design outstanding high-tech devices. It’s your core expertise. It’s your brand. It’s you and Jonathan Ive.

We are, of course, deeply grateful to the medical device industry for keeping us alive. Where would we be without them? But while they’re still struggling with shrinking complex technologies down to a scale where we can attach them, hard-wired, to our bodies, design kinda becomes an afterthought.

This is where the world needs your help, Steve. We’re people first and patients second. We’re children, we’re adults, we’re elderly. We’re women, we’re men. We’re athletes, we’re lovers.

If insulin pumps or continuous monitors had the form of an iPod Nano, people wouldn’t have to wonder why we wear our “pagers” to our own weddings, or puzzle over that strange bulge under our clothes. If these devices wouldn’t start suddenly and incessantly beeping, strangers wouldn’t lecture us to turn off our “cell phones” at the movie theater.

In short, medical device manufacturers are stuck in a bygone era; they continue to design these products in an engineering-driven, physician-centered bubble. They have not yet grasped the concept that medical devices are also life devices, and therefore need to feel good and look good for the patients using them 24/7, in addition to keeping us alive.

Clearly, we need a visionary to champion this disconnect. We need an organization on the cutting edge of consumer design to get vocal about this issue. Ideally, we need a “gadget guru” like Jonathan Ive to show the medical device industry what is possible.

What we need here is a sweeping change in industry-wide mentality — achievable only if some respected Thought Leader tackles the medical device design topic in a public forum. We therefore implore you, Mr. Jobs, to be that Thought Leader.

We have begun by brainstorming a number of actions that you and/or Apple could take to jumpstart this discussion:

* Sponsor a contest by Apple Inc. for best-designed med device from an independent party, and the winning item will receive a makeover from Jonathan Ive himself

* Conduct a “Med Model Challenge”: the Apple design team takes several existing medical devices and demonstrates how to “pimp” them to be more useful and cool

* Establish Apple Med Design School – offer a course on consumer design concepts to selected engineers from leading pharma companies

We need a creative mind like yours to help change the world, again. We, the undersigned, call upon you to take action now.

Yours Truly,

DDD (Digital Device Dependent)

———— END ————-

The Open Letter 10 Years Later: Read About Diabetes Innovation Milestones

Archived Comments

elinor|2007-04-09

Where do I sign?Absolutely first rate idea!!

Jana|2007-04-09

Once again, Amy, you hit the nail on the head! I will be the first to admit that I chose the Minimed pump over the Animas partially because in my opinion it is slightly better looking…

Felix Kasza|2007-04-09

“Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint” — MephistoI am sorry to report that I disagree. You are welcome to the iPump, but I’ll stick with the stuff that takes years and years to go through testing, and that therefore looks as if it had been designed years ago. Which it was, after all.Not to mention that life-sustaining devices are the _last_ thing that I want to see coming out of the Reality Distortion Firld enveloping Cupertino.Cheers,Felix.

elinor|2007-04-09

Where do I sign?Absolutely first rate idea!!

Jana|2007-04-09

Once again, Amy, you hit the nail on the head! I will be the first to admit that I chose the Minimed pump over the Animas partially because in my opinion it is slightly better looking…

Felix Kasza|2007-04-09

“Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint” — MephistoI am sorry to report that I disagree. You are welcome to the iPump, but I’ll stick with the stuff that takes years and years to go through testing, and that therefore looks as if it had been designed years ago. Which it was, after all.Not to mention that life-sustaining devices are the _last_ thing that I want to see coming out of the Reality Distortion Firld enveloping Cupertino.Cheers,Felix.

michael arrington|2007-04-09

best idea I’ve heard all day. 🙂

ceeque|2007-04-10

great great idea, though I have to admit, the design principles of some recent diabetic equipment looks good but does`nt last…

Ernesto Jardim|2007-04-10

Good idea, how can we make this visible to Apple ? messages to Apple ?BTW this article was mentioned in techcrunch.EJ

Betsy|2007-04-10

Amen sista! The day the iPhone was introduced, my boss and I had this same conversation. Good design is a beautiful thing! If only all of life’s necessities were integrated into one little device. I know I would be a lot more gung ho about a pump if the interface reflected Mac OS X! And if you could listen to your favorite tunes while emailing the doc your numbers all while getting a long run in???? And you wouldn’t have to figure out how to attach it to your body…Ah, if only…

Fred Oliveira|2007-04-10

This sort of problem isn’t trivial to tackle, and I personally don’t think Apple is the solution, but the real companies doing the design are – IDEO comes to mind immediately. Naturally the end-result is an Apple product, but the design for the iPod came from several other sources.All this to say I disagree with the idea of making this an apple-centric effort, but am all for coming up with creative ways to get the design community thinking about medical device design and efficiency. That would be a good thing. Addressing Steve Jobs (who I obviously admire, but is definitely not the creative behind the form factor or interaction of the iPod) is going the popular eye-catching way, not the result-returning way.I’d love to tackle this problem, because I know quite a few people who would benefit from such an effort. Johnathan Ive is talented, but he shouldn’t be the ultimate judge for any product beside the apple iLife scope.

af|2007-04-10

Apple is unlikely to respond. You’d likely do better in approaching the designers of the device themselves. Why not contact an innovator like Tony Faddel directly?

peter|2007-04-10

Steve Jobs is about results. We speak of 20 million folks in the US who have diabetes…any idea what the global number is? I’d have to imagine the market is large enough as is the need.There is also an innovation firm in Philadelphia who have done some work in this space that goes beyond glucose monitoring and gets into the food monitoring space. SFGT.At any rate, send the letter to Apple and the editor of his hometown paper…you never know!!!!

Ronald Northrip|2007-04-10

Perhaps an email. He keeps an open email address and many people send him letters all the time. I’m sure there is a staff that reads most of it, but you’ll likely get a response. I did.sjobs@mac.com or sjobs@apple.comI think both work. Good luck.

Journeywoman|2007-04-10

I love it!Couldn’t agree more.

Bernard Farrell|2007-04-10

Can I be a naysayer.There are many in the design field that don’t think that highly of the iPod. I think that Apple has is the coolness factor.Have you tried to use an iPod that has 1,000 songs on it? The user interface is actually pretty lousy. And don’t even attempt to listen to classical music on it. The small amount of screen display makes it almost impossible to pick out a specific track.Despite which, we do have an iPod. Because the alternatives aren’t much better.Amy, this is not to take away from the point of your post. I agree with the issues you raise. As, I believe, does Ruppert over on aiming for grace.I’d like to see the same letter addressed to Bill Buxton, who really knows about design issues. And he might actually listen. (I don’t think you’d get much of a response from Steve Jobs.)As I was writing, my Dexcom (http://www.bernardfarrell.com/blog/blogger.html) buzzed loudly and beeped in my pocket. Definitely there’s lots of room for improvement will all of these devices we depend on for our lives.Our problem is that the device creators have satisfied our basic needs and then just stopped. We have Functionality and Reliability but none of the other design needs (page 106 of the book Universal Principles of Design) of Usability, Proficiency, and most importantly, Creativity.

Scott|2007-04-10

Design seems to be the last thing even considered when they make these devices. I agree with Bernard that the iPod isn’t necessarily the greatest design but has a coolness factor fueling it. But I would like to remind you of what has happened since competition entered the market. For many years, Minimed was the only player in town. But a startup called Animas (now part of Johnson & Johnson) did introduce design changes with a menu-driven device as opposed to the old Minimed 508. Now, they all have menu-driven controls. But it wouldn’t have happened without competition. The same holds true in the insulin market, which is really an oligopoly with little incentive to incorporate good design into their products.I’m not sure Steve Jobs is the appropriate person to write to, but you might try William C. Weldon, the CEO of J&J or Arthur D. (Art) Collins Jr., CEO of Medtronic.

Steve M|2007-04-10

I have to disagree with Bernard’s comments above concerning the iPod’s interface, even with thousands of songs. I have no trouble using a nano for my music. You personally may not like it, but it doesn’t mean the design is poor. Coolness factor, as you put it, hardly sells 100 million iPods, there is substance there. Those in the “design field” who ignore this, are probably the ones designing products that aren’t selling.I do agree that there are many markets that are underserved by designers and engineers, but I disagree that Apple should be involved at all in solving them. Apple is good at what they do, precisely because they know what they’re good at, and stick to it. You cannot take Apple and smack them into every situation and expect amazing things.However, you can apply their design philosophy in any situation, and expect results. Others just need to step up and champion the cause, as you have done here.

Nancy Bohannon MD|2007-04-10

I agree wholeheartedly! It might help people be more willing to be more assertive in their diabetes care.

Matt Stuhff|2007-04-10

You got linked to on Techcrunch. Woot. Awesome ideas. You make excellent points and would be more than willing to sign this letter. I’ve had diabetes for going on 14 years now and although the meters have gotten smaller, they still lack a lot of the modern design elements.

Cath|2007-04-10

This is a brilliant idea! Whether it gets Apple’s attention or not, you will certainly have gotten a new discussion started about improving the design and usability of medical devices.

Manny Hernandez|2007-04-10

I think that Amy’s biggest accomplishment with this post of hers has been to shed light on two things that are essential:1) Bringing attention to diabetes as a true issue, one that is lived by 20 million of us, yet seems to be continually brushed aside and underfunded by the government (this administration, at least) in favor of other uses for our tax money. Getting linked from the home page of TechCrunch is certainly a hit and one that she deserves a lot of credit for, because that is publicity for the cause that can’t be bought.2) Insulin pumps and meters indeed need help to make them more usable and, while personal preferences for or against Apple can be understandable, the important thing is that this need be brought to the forefront like it Amy is doing.KUDOS to you and for all you do for diabetics, Amy!P.S. I am digging this too: the more exposure to the issue, the merrier.

Davin Peterson|2007-04-10

The iPod isn’t the only video MP3 player on the market. It unfairly dominates the market. Check out the Creative Zen Vision:M, which is kills the iPod with it’s high resoultion screen – 262,000 vs. iPod’s 62,000 colors, supports more video formats, has a built in FM-Radio/Recorder and Microphone for voice recording. You can even have background wallpaper instead of the iPod’s boring white screen.

Mary|2007-04-10

Of the five ipods we’ve owned in my family, two have been defective and were replaced under warranty, one succumbed shortly after the warranty expired, and all five have required periodic resets to correct software glitches. In the fifteen years I’ve been using an insulin pump, I haven’t needed to send one in for repair. Although I love my ipod, I’d never want to stake my life on it!

dave|2007-04-10

Scott said, ‘Coolness factor, as you put it, hardly sells 100 million iPods….’How many pairs of bell bottom jeans were sold because of coolness? Don’t discount coolness. ipod designs are terrible but they’re better than the other 2 or 3 main designs.I think Apple is the wrong company to approach with this idea. It’s an awesome conversation – extending usability to medical devices – but Apple isn’t the company to solve this problem.Apple products look cool but cool isn’t what you want in a medical device. You want usability.

Manny Hernandez|2007-04-10

FYI, I just passed this along to someone I know in Apple.Also, when I went to digg the story, I found the TechCrunch article had already been dugg. Here’s the link, so you guys can digg it too:http://digg.com/hardware/iPod_v_Insulin_Pump

Ben Kamens|2007-04-10

Sign me up. I’ve been talking about Apple redesigning my insulin pump for the last 5 years. People like Woz and Jonathan Ives could make these things soooo much smaller and infinitely cooler.

Emily|2007-04-10

I would be in line for a hot pink iPump! I’m 23 and in the best shape of my life, but now I have a huge pump hanging off of me at all times…it could definitely use an upgrade.P.S. You talked about people having their “pagers” at their own weddings…mine’s coming up soon! Anyone have diabetic/pumping bride advice? I’d love to hear!

Todd Clare|2007-04-10

Absolutely. I’ve got a Minimed pump, which is sore need of help. great features. great product. lousy interface and form factor.

Bernard Farrell|2007-04-10

You might also find this article worth a read – The Myth of the instant iPod revolution (http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2007/04/the_myth_of_the.html).It’s not simply design that makes this product successful. It’s that combined with coolness, combined with a software platform that makes it easy to purchase and add songs.I did send a note to Bill Buxton and he had an interesting perspective. I may blog about this later.

adam|2007-04-10

Any new design,for an insulin pump, it seems to me, would have to appease two groups.First, it would have to please its users. A remote controller could have the look and feel of an iPod–rounded corners, the wheel, immediate visual feedback, and occasional audio feedback, possibly through a tiny earpod.Next, the design would have to please every person NOT using the pump. To everyone else, it should be invisible.It seems to me that the best way to get Apple Computer Company’s proprietary user interface on other devices would be for Apple to license the user interface to other companies as a general user interface. That way, any person could use the iPod’s superb design to remotely control media devices/players, streaming media on computers, or medical life-support devices. Apple would profit by allowing its proprietary interface to become a universal user interface for remote control of machinery on a per-user license fee.The interface could be implemented through Bluetooth or some other wireless format.Whether Apple can broadly license its proprietary user interface while maintaining its reputation for high quality in machinery remains an open question for each potential licensee.

Longbow|2007-04-10

Personally, I wouldnt buy a medical device that was made/designed by Apple. not with their track record of faulty/ malfunctioning devices. Maybe if AMD made it though

Ann Barker|2007-04-10

Maybe it is worth trying a system like http://www.dhealth.net and giving them feedback. Free and already pretty cool. No ads.

Acer|2007-04-10

They’re asking Apple to aesthetically design the casing folks, not come up with the innards of the thing that actually do the important medical work. Beyond the outside, and potentially guiding a UI, I think it’s a stretch to say that it would be an “Apple Product”. I think those worrying about reliability and random bugs/errors of a device like this are a bit off of the point.

AmyT|2007-04-10

Thank you, Acer. Right on!

Adam|2007-04-10

I’m a diabetic myself and also agree with you but… mp3 devices are made mostly not to be more confortable, but more stylsish and with neater applications. I think that the little devices we use are as much as a pain we have to carry with us, than making money out of “cooler” devices by apple.What I really agree is on making applications that are compatible with ipods. Like measurements and schedules and units of insulint and things like that, rather then making money out of deaseses.What sure should be in process is the way to eliminate diabetes rather then making devices to show our family and friends how cool it is to have it.This is my personal opinion.

Jay Nielson|2007-04-10

THANK YOU! I got my first pump today and I understand everything that you’re talking about. AMEN.

chicagorado|2007-04-10

The primary focus of the insulin pump and glucose meter is to help treat a disease by being reliable, accurate, and precise. In fact, these devices are becoming smaller, easier to use, and more appealing, but lag behind in current styling because the designs on the market are a number of years old due to extensive testing and federal regulations (which is a good thing). It seems like time would be better spent lobbying to the drug companies that create these devices to improve their designs, rather than reaching out to Steve Jobs. Do you think that Steve Jobs and Apple really want that kind of liability anyways?Speaking of design, there is a physical limit on how small an insulin pump can get because there is a specific amount of insulin needed to treat diabetes. It is ridiculous to think that an insulin pump can be the size of a nano. Also, the pump that I am familiar with (Medtronic MiniMed) can go at least 6 weeks with a single AA battery, which easily blows the battery life of an ipod out of the water.I’m not trying to be a complete pessimist either though. Do I think that medical devices could be better? Yes. Should we ask Steve Jobs to design these devices? No. Let Apple do what they’re good at and the drug companies do what they’re good at (in both cases, robbing us blind). My suggestion is to try working with Steve Jobs the philanthropist, not the designer.

birdie|2007-04-10

Amy,you so rock! You speak the truth and you have the guts to turn your beliefs into actions. Design matters, aesthetics matter. We assume the insides are going to work, now let’s spend some more time and energy on the outside, so that we can move beyond the pump as simply a “medical device” to something larger like a “health and life enhancer” for people with diabetes. Good function and good design are not an either/or proposition.And you know how it warms my heart to see such a robust discussion about pump design. Agree or disagree with asking Apple to help, the point is that we’ve had to accept what we’re given, rather than be consulted about what we want. Everyone is grateful for the amazing technology of the pump. I’d like to see a day when we can also be proud of its design.Thanks for your clarion voice on the subject and thanks for having the chops for getting it out to a wider audience. Like I said, you rock!

Anne|2007-04-10

I think a more slick interface iwould be fabulous, even though I’m pretty happy with my waterproof animas pump. Whoever designs it, it still has go through FDA testing, which is a lot more rigorous with things like reliability than whatever procedures a consumer entertainment product would go through. I think it’s a great idea to get some people on board who have more time to really consider a great user interface.What I would really like is to condense all of my electronic D-gadgets into one device so my purse isn’t brimming over all of the time. And maybe somehow introduce an option of withdrawing insulin from the pump with a syringe in case of a pump malfunction so I don’t have to carry an extra vial everywhere.I’m sure they would get more than enough feedback from this group!

BillyWarhol|2007-04-10

I may have Great News for U Amy & all the Diabetics*We may not need Steve Jobs Apple or the Oranges i practised on with a Needle 35 Years ago*Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabsBy DANIEL MARTIN – More by this author » Last updated at 00:20am on 11th April 2007Comments CommentsHopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections.Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.scroll down for moreinsulinA new scientific breakthrough could spell the end of insulin injectionsThe researchers say it could herald the start of a revolution in treating type one diabetes, which affects 300,000 patients in Britain.Type one diabetics have to regularly inject themselves with the hormone insulin to control their blood sugar levels.The new research has emerged a month after it was revealed that the number of British children under the age of five who had developed type one diabetes had risen fivefold in the past 20 years.A team of US and Brazilian scientists gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by injections of stem cells drawn from their own blood.After treatment, 14 of the 15 were able to put away their injection pens after losing their insulin dependence.And so far, one patient has been free of insulin dependency for 35 months.Study leader Dr Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paolo said he had rushed out his findings because of the positive results.He said: “Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease.”Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin dependence and treatment-related toxicity was low, with no mortality.”Type one diabetes is caused by insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas being destroyed by the patient’s own immune system.Stem cells are immature cells that can develop to become a range of different adult cells.In the latest trial, patients’ immune systems were suppressed using powerful drugs – to eliminate the white blood cells that were attacking the pancreas.The patient was then injected with a chemical which loosened stem cells from their bone marrow. These were filtered out, collected and later injected back into the patient’s bloodstream.Some of the 14 patients responded more quickly than others, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Researchers believe the stem cells developed into new white blood cells which did not attack the pancreatic beta cells.But they admit there are other possible interpretations – the stem cells could have developed into new beta cells in the pancreas. Or something might have happened to stop the existing beta cells being destroyed.The study only included a small number of patients between 14 and 31, and did not monitor their progress for very long.Because of the nature of the study, it is not known if further stem cell injections would be required at a later date.And unlike most medical trials there was no comparison with patients left untreated or only given drugs to suppress their immune system.Malcolm Alison, professor of stem cell biology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said: “In principle this is a cure because these people developed long-term control of their glucose levels.”But these patients haven’t been followed up long enough, so we cannot yet be sure.”Dr Ian Frame, research manager at Diabetes UK, said: “This is interesting new research that demonstrates that there may have been a substantial improvement in beta cell fundtion. However we would wish to avoid false hope based on the very preliminary nature of these results.”This study had a very small number of participants and importantly did not include a randomised control group for comparison of results.”Also, as the researchers say, those who took part have not been sufficiently followed up to find out whether or not the improvements have continued.”All these issues need to be addressed through more research before there are any conclusive findings in this area.”There have been several pointers towards this latest discovery.Studies have alreday shown that bone marrow transplants given to cancer patients also seemed to reverse certain auto-immune disease such as type one diabetes. Bone marrow is full of stem cells.Later it was found that treating patients with stem cells from their own blood could benefit individuals with a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Chron’s disease

Sunil S Chiplunkar|2007-04-10

Watch out biz folks – Amy’s landmark post has brought out what internet is all about. That is the internet is all about communication and convergence.Health is no more under the purview of medical and paramedical professional and the pharma companies alone. It is the community’s responsibility.The era of convergence is all out to bring in software algorithms, microchips in medical devices in larger scale and high tech – high design in to health.Welcome to health 3.0 revolution! www.pharmaceuticalshealthcare.blogspot.com

Martien van Steenbergen|2007-04-11

Excellent idea! Sure hope that Steve bites. And while at it, diabetes software can use an upgrade as well. First half of 2006 a small team of students have been working on Cheetah—a fully distributed self-learning (smart) peer-to-peer community-based diabetes open source software systemSee:http://wiki.aardrock.com/Cheetah_Project_Proposalhttp://wiki.aardrock.com/Cheetah_Work_Space

Sarah|2007-04-11

Emily: I am also getting married (congrats to you!)!I am having my dress custom designed, and it will have a special pocket on the inside for my pump. You can also have a pocket added to an existing dress, and it shouldn’t cost much. The placement will depend on the style of the dress and accessibility.Many people also use garters with pouches (very easy to find nowadays) and put their pump in there. I find this doesn’t work well for me, but some like it.Another idea is to thread your pump through your dress and carry it in a fancy little purse slung on your shoulder. It would make it easily accessible for meals, but it might be very awkward. Or wear it in your bra (I do this from time to time).As for the topic, I wear a grey Cozmo pump, and while it doesn’t play music, it looks pretty decent to me. If technology and creativity could be combined, and Apple could create a “cool” pump, I would buy it, but the truth is, I would rather have money spent on making the technology better. Insulin pump technology is still pretty primitive compared to other scientific advancements in society, although it has improved greatly.I think we can ask for cooler looking blood glucose machines, if not pumps. The problem is, most (Type 2) diabetics are not on insulin, or if they are, they are on Lantus only. Type 1 diabetics all need insulin, but they are the minority of diabetics (5%-10%) and not all use or want a pump.Either way, even though I prefer a cure 😉 I guess a cool meter/pump will have to do in the meantime…

Sarah|2007-04-11

P.S. I agree with Acer too. The REAL point is to make pumps “LOOK” better. Apple will not design the inner working of the pump, they will collaborate with pump companies to make them LOOK cooler. At least from what I gather.It would be nice if they could add some “special features” though! 😉

Rob Tillaart|2007-04-11

Two thought came up:1) Aren’t there design students out there who love to redesign such devices?2) An Apple a day keeps the doctor away ;)Most important signal I think is that a well designed interface can decrease the amount of error’s.regards,rob

luvmybirdies|2007-04-11

I think Amy has done a good job of getting some attention brought to this subject, but I have to say that I haven’t really had any complaints about my pump since I got it. Sure, it’s not as cute as it probably could be, but the important thing is that it gets the job done. I’m not even sure I would want a bright pink or green pump – wouldn’t that just draw more attention to it? I prefer mine to be as invisible as possible. I’ve got a black Animas IR-1200 and I have NEVER had problems with beeping or buzzing and drained batteries so I feel very lucky. I must say that I am just happy that the pump exists – no more injections!

flargh|2007-04-11

Awesome idea, Amy! What’s more, I’d really like to see a Mac OS X-compatible glucometer with some decent software.

Juan Antonio|2007-04-11

I wholeheartedly agree with this letter and would like to add that the user interface (the OS) of the pumps, at least the MiniMed, also need reworking. I, too, chose the MM because it looks the sleekest and compact and least like a medical device. I like the idea of the Cozmo, but I don’t get the asymmetry. WHEN have you ever seen a consumer electronics item that is not symmetric? Thanks for writing this letter. Hopefully it will inspire some change somewhere.

Wookie|2007-04-11

This letter, and especially the comments, appear to be guilty of some of the same thinking that leads to poorly designed products in the first place, ie; considering ‘design’ as something that is done to a product to give it more aesthetic kudos. The general public thinks of design as being synonymous with ‘styling’, when that is in fact only one part of the designers remit. Function and usability, areas which in the industrial design arena cross-over to an extent with the work of the engineer, are also intrinsic large parts of the process and most truly great products are somewhat more than a sexy-looking skin in a svelte form-factor.The reason Apple turn out well designed products is not because they have great designers (although they do), but because they understand how to use design where much of the industry does not. There are numerous great designers out there who are fully aware of the problems in medical devices and other product areas but who are not given enough prominence in the product development cycle to make a contribution that would help. Unfortunately in many cases they are just called in to style something at the end of the process and to do so within financial and physical constraints that are only in place because they have not been consulted early enough in the process.It doesn’t take someone like Apple to show the medical industry how to design stuff, the responsibility is in the hands of the medical industry to give designers a greater degree of influence and freedom than they are often allowed. There do exist great examples of design in the medical world that are the result of exactly this philosophy. The problem is not specific to the medical industry though, it is more generally to do with industry’s reluctance to invest in design, those who do usually win – ie; Apple, Dyson.Also, to pick up on some comments about reliability, build quality etc. – a well designed product will obviously take all this into account, but don’t blame the design for poor quality assurance, manufacture or after-sales support – areas covered by other arms of a business. Even the greatest design can be laid low if build badly using cheap components, Apple is striking a commercial balance, a medical company would have higher emphasis on reliability over cost.If you desire better designed products your efforts would be best placed supporting design industry bodies (such as the Design Council in the UK) in their efforts to get better investment in design across industry in general.

Jason Mazzotta|2007-04-11

Other peoiple may have covered what I’m about to say but, I believe wearable medical devices are designed as well as they can be. One thing you have to take into consideration is that these devices have to serve as many people as possible. You mention the Nano and a glucose monitor. Poorly managed diabetes can lead to vision problems. I don’t think the iPod Nano’s screen size would serve those people too well. Similar arguments can be made for the obnoxious beeps and older people who might not have very good hearing and suffer type II diabetes.

Inkling|2007-04-11

I can understand the problem. I wrote the manual for an ultrasound device that MDs use to scan bladder fulness, the upscale version of one used by people who have to be cathed to urinate. The engineers, bless their hearts, had done almost no thinking about how the image should appear. On screen left and right meant the opposite of what up and down meant. If it had slipped out that way, users would have gone nuts. Patients aren’t the only ones troubled by bad UIs.Don’t forget that iPods can also read data from joggers. That same inexpensive technology could send data from an insulin pump (or whatever) for storage on an iPod and later readback by a computer at home or at an MDs office.

Duncan|2007-04-12

This is possibly the most insane idea I have ever heard of. Apple have no experience of designing for the medical field, its nothing like designing an iPod in any way at all. Designing a device which has a primary function of entertainment and one for keeping someone alive follow very very different design criteria and focus points at all stages of production and this is not easily adaptable.The only good that can come of your letter is not to pursuade Jobs to come on board (which he won’t for the above mentioned reasons) but to highlight to the existing companies who quite rightly have not focused on style over function that they might like to concentrate a little more time on the aesthetics of such a device.

Allie Beatty|2007-04-13

I agree with Emily — and with Amy’s quest for better hardware 😉 My MiniMed pump isn’t drawing the high-tech head turns it once did (waaay back in 1999!) LoL Yeah, c’mon money-makers. Diabetes is booming. Hop on the bus with something nano-nifty and mega-thrifty 😉 We know you’re listening — and we thank you for your support! 😉

Eveline|2007-04-14

Kudos to all who have replied. I work for a medical device company that markets an insulin pump. Let me reassure you that design was one of the key areas researched during the development phase. The fact is, medical devices are somewhat limited by the functions that they must perform and the increasing amount of features (safety and otherwise) that have become requirements in todays market. If you are an end-user of a medical device and have suggestions for improvements, I strongly suggest that you call the manufacturer of that device and let them know! There are mechanisms which help bring those suggestions to the designers and will be incorporated in new product designs. The medical device industry is out there listening, just let us know.(and by the way, I think involving designers with a history of successful, intuitive and attractive design in the medical device industry is brilliant!)

Kiki Lavier|2007-04-24

There are many other companies besides Apple that makes small MP3 players. In fact, Apple doesn’t even manufacture their own MP3 players.So, why the focus on Steve Jobs or Apple. Some people have the illusion that Apple means some “public policy” rather than the reality that they are but a commercial interest–one of many.

Florian|2007-05-05

While we’re at it, I would like to see a glucose meter built into my laptop.Florian (Type 1, dx 1967)

Timothy Reid|2007-05-08

I work with a variety of insulin pumps on a regular basis. While I agree that there is a certain appeal to having a nice design to a medical device, this should remain secondary to functionality. Remember, these devices have to be used by many people of all ages from different cultures and backgrounds. Not everyone is of the Ipod generation. The FDA plays a big role in the approval of these devices. “Cool” is not a characteristic that will move the FDA…..reliability and functionality will. There are a few things that I would like to see insulin pumps do. One is take on a few of the characteristics of a cell phone. I see people all of the time who have the time set wrong on their pump. Either am/pm is reversed or the time is off all together. Wouldn’t it be nice if the pump picked up the cell towers time signal and kept the pump current. This might be one more reason to quit wearing a wristwatch. I think BlueTooth is here to stay. It would be nice if the pump could data dump to a PDA so you could trend analyze on the fly. Right now, pumps that download have some proprietary cables that you have to have available. The other thing BlueTooth would enable would be cell phone connectivity. This would make it possible to forward this information to your physician for review without the computer interface. This could also be set up as a remote alarm….say maybe if the pump has not had a button pushed in X hours it would signal the cell phone to call for help. Parents that are worried about their kids at school with their pump could set it up to call them if blood sugars fall outside a set range. If we could get the glucose meters/sensors to agree on a BlueTooth platform, this would make any meter/sensor compatable with any pump and also make downloading and transmitting data easy and seamless. Just some thoughts. I enjoyed the conversation above. Best regards.

Jeff at www.thenewsroom.com|2007-06-30

Maybe that’ll be his next thing: http://thenewsroom.com/details/453236?c_id=wom-bc-js

minxlj|2007-08-29

Brilliant idea – as a child, for years I was ashamed of carrying around my ugly asthma inhaler until a more portable, usable version was designed. Suddenly someone had paid attention to making the thing easy to use! Design and usability are integral development stages to every product, and manufacturers should never forget that.

DesignerEngineer|2008-01-15

I am one of those people that this is written to. I am a mechanical design engineer for a blood glucose monitor company. And I agree that most of the meters on the market need some help. But there’s also the fact that we give them away. Sure we make money on the strips, but a lot of cost decisions are based on the fact that they’re free. There’s also some disfunction in the design process inside the company and it’s hard to get everyone to agree what needs to happen and to get the good creativity in the process from the beginning. There’s a lot of focus on schedule and getting the next meter out – and it does take a lot of testing to prove the reliability of these things. But we absolutely would love user and designer input. Make a blog specifically on meter design. Send your ideas to us – you’re creative, you can find our contact info. We’re working on it.

Techcrunch|2007-04-09

Apple iPod v. The Insulin Pump Amy Tenderich writes one of (if not the) most influential blogs about diabetes, Diabetes Mine. Noting the news today about Apple selling its 100 millionth iPod and praising the exceptional industrial design of Apple products, she asks for Apples…

Dress To Survive|2007-04-10

A Plea For Sane IndustrialDesign Amy Tenderich is a blogger. Shes also a diabetic. The gadgets she needs to live are clunky and outmoded. They look like some basement hacker threw them together with the amazing side-effect of keeping someone alive. A purely accidental side-effe…

manage to experience|2007-04-10

Different kind of iPod

Unsought Input|2007-04-10

Who Cares About the iPod, Where is the Apple Glucose Meter? A few months ago I was looking at blood sugar meters and cholesterol testers for family members. I have had my blood tested for various things throughout my life and Ive seen the standard drugstore-issue glucose monitors in action, so I had a …

Richard Lennox|2007-04-11

100 million IPods but one big design mistake. This week sees the sale of the Apple IPod reach over 100,000,000. Yes that is 100 million. To be honest my IPod is not a statement or fashion accessory, it is a tool I use day in day out. It helps me relax and concentrate at the same …

Three Minds @ Organic|2007-08-17

Charmr: An iPod for Diabetics In response to an open letter to Steve Jobs, experience design firm Adaptive Path has taken up the call to come up with a design for a device that would transform how diabetics manage their condition. They pulled together a…

Diabetes Mine – the all things diabetes blog » Blog Archive » The 2nd Annual DiabetesMine┢ Design Challenge|2008-06-10

[…] was just about this time last year that I posted my Open Letter to Steve Jobs, calling for the gods of consumer design to help revolutionize design of diabetes devices. This […]

sohbet|2008-06-19

hi, great idea, I know I would be a lot more gung ho about a pump if the interface reflected Mac.

Future of diabetes devices could be a ‘Charmr’|2008-06-25

[…] writes the blog DiabetesMine.com, is one of 20 million Americans diagnosed with the illness. In a post in April, Tenderich wrote an “Open Letter […]

beingdiabetic.co.nz » dia-Phone.|2008-07-13

[…] a technology lover and a proud iPod Touch owner I would be chuffed to bits. I know Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine started a letter to Steve Jobs of Apple earlier this year, I must follow up on how she got […]

The future of the insulin pump — saltyandsweet.org|2008-07-16

[…] reading Amy’s Open Letter to Steve Jobs, over at Diabetes Mine, regarding the lack of I have come up with items I would love to see […]

ProductDesigner|2008-08-15

I’m product designer working on the next generation of an insulin pump. I’m glad I came across this post, because this is exactly the challenge I’m facing right now. I would love to here some specifics on frustrations with the current pumps…looks, interface, functionality, wearability…etcWhatever we design today, it will have an influence on the next pump in the market.

Randy Christenson|2008-09-09

Yes, yes, yes…please help us!

Insulin Pump by Jiri Bukvald » Yanko Design|2008-11-04

[…] a ripple effect can cause all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald […]

Softcraze: Technology Journal, Gadget News » OLED Display Keeps The Insulin Pumping|2008-11-05

[…] all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald attempts to assuage these problems with his […]

YY Design » Blog Archive » OLED Display Keeps The Insulin Pumping|2008-11-13

[…] a ripple effect can cause all sorts of product categories to benefit. To wit, insulin pumps have lagged behind the industry of personal gadget design with poor battery life and clunky design. Jiri Bukvald […]

I would like to make my iPhone into a glucose meter | The Diabetic Lifestyle Journal|2008-12-15

[…] the iPhone. This adapter would allow me to insert blood testing strips so I can test my sugars. Steve Jobs is not going to be creating medical devices anytime soon. Wake up people, these companies don’t care about design. They care about selling testing […]

Matt|2009-02-05

AMEN!

Jobs in Pakistan|2009-02-11

Great idea i also agreed with you.I think there are many manufacture copines in all over the world running a lot of business from his product.

Jo|2009-02-11

Great idea and concept. However, I have had a couple iPods that have failed on me. Two weeks ago, my brand-new Paradigm went into a lockdown that they couldn’t decipher. Hence, how do we take two great devices and marry them into something that is fail-safe, small, has a continuous glucose sensor integrated into the cannula?Point being is that if a collaboration could take place between Apple and MiniMed, there is great possibility for us… just get the damned thing into the market… would hate to wait another 3 years.Love your page & blog… keep it up.Jo =)

Camille Johnson|2009-03-03

Write legislation that makes insulin and all diabetic supplies be generic-required in every state. It is outrageous that insulin and test strips are still so expensive. Do legislators know how much it costs to test the required 4-8 times per day?

Oscar|2009-03-20

Hey, Amy.Greets from Spain. I read this post last year, and remember how wonderful idea I thought you had. Last week I was following Apple’s keynote about the upcoming iPhone SDK 3.0 via Twitter. Then a tweet appeared announcing somebody from Lifescan was going on stage to present a new application. I had my glucometer in front of me. It’s a OneTouch… from Lifescan. First thought I had was: “This is gonna be huuuuuuuge…”. Second one was “Amy has been heard”.That night I watched the video and it’s so damned close to what I thought is a perfect monitoring device that I can’t wait to lay my hands on it :). I already think the iPhone is the best gadget I’ve ever had (and gonna have, but Apple often proves me wrong 😀 ), but Lifescan app is going to skyrocket my appreciation on it.Just my thoughts. Thanks for the blog, the ideas and everything. Keep inspiring!!!

“Jesus Phone 3.0” touches diabetic blogger — RoughlyDrafted Magazine|2009-03-21

[…] a San Francisco blogger who maintains Diabetes Mine for people living with diabetes, penned an open letter to Steve Jobs, asking Apple to help apply the design savvy of the iPod to the medical devices that […]

ahmet maranki|2009-03-22

Keep up the excellent work! Your website helps to keep me from boredom as well.

Sarah DiVello|2009-03-24

I contacted the Trade Show Manager at Apple to see if they plan to showcase any diabetes-related iPhone apps or any Tech devices that are in the works related to diabetes at the Diabetes Educators (AADE) Expo in August. She informed me that they plan to save money on showcasing their products to educators/professionals at tradeshows and instead focus on their retail outlets. What a shame…Not sure about you but I never go in the Apple stores.

People with diabetes use iPods. | Khürt|2009-04-02

[…] Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design […]

Joe|2009-04-22

Doesn’t Steve Jobs himself have a health problem with his pancreas?

bravosmith|2009-05-15

Great idea i also agreed with you. I think there are many manufacture copines in all over the world running a lot of business from his product.Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these. We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers.——————————————————– Bravosmithoffice jobs

iPhone facilitando a vida dos diabéticos | inovaTIvidade|2009-07-03

[…] foi uma resposta da Apple a uma blogueira diabética que, há mais de 1 ano atrás, escreveu uma carta aberta para o Steve Jobs onde, em resumo, pedia para que ele, de alguma forma, contribuísse para a melhoria do design dos […]

Ben|2009-07-07

I must say that I agree with previous comments in objection to this idea. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate iPod’s innovation in the arenas of user functionality and aesthetics. But as others have said, it has been accomplished at the expense of reliability. This is not a luxury that medical device companies have. I work for a company that designs implants and I must say that the comments that the designers of these implants are out of date is ridiculous. These devices incorporate some of the most complicated and state-of-art technologies in the world in order to SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES! Apple has the luxury of prioritizing aesthetics and user friendliness because the built in functionality is VERY simple relative to medical devices. As well, their market allows them to be much more iterative in their designs and therefore quicker to respond to market trends. The process medical devices go through to be approved and market ready is much more complicated and extensive and thus less prone to iteration. I think the fact that this writer is comparing medical devices to iPods is VERY naive and not a fair comparison based on very different markets. You can’t make a valid comparison between a life saving, FDA regulated, medical device and a consumer electronic device. All this being said, it makes sense for medical device manufacturers to listen to their patients and develop products that address as many of their needs as possible. But with any product there are priorities and with medical devices those priorities will always be functionality and reliability. Especially when people’s lives depend on it.

burs|2009-07-11

i found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me.

Muwasalat.com|2009-07-20

True. Loved it. Great idea. But if just the lobbyists allow APPLE INC. to get into Diabetes market. It will grow. And it will work. Wish it could work. By 2020 watched in documentary or so that out of every 5 Americans 1 would have diabetes. Something like that. It was strikingly out figure.

iPhone facilitando a vida dos diabéticos « Flavio Camilo – Blog de Tecnologia Médica|2009-07-26

[…] foi uma resposta da Apple a uma blogueira diabética que, há mais de 1 ano atrás, escreveu uma carta aberta para o Steve Jobs onde, em resumo, pedia para que ele, de alguma forma, contribuísse para a melhoria do design dos […]

diafine|2009-08-03

What a cool idea. packaging is everything some device manufactures just don’t get it. Glucose Meters don’t have to look like that anymore. It’s a medical device but it’s so consumer based it doesn’t really matter anymore. I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to put on a sexy case onto one of these meters. I wonder why these devices are so practical looking. Do we really want to pay double the price for a meter just because it looks better? What about the strips can we make them look better and charge double and have it do the same thing except sound better. Wonder who’s going to pay for that.

Colin Pye|2009-08-19

Yikes, Ben! First, about the safety concerns. There’s already a model out there for connecting an already-successful product with iPods. Think Nike. The newer Nike running shoes have a transmitter built in to them that will connect to the receiver in the iPod Touch, the iPhone, or the ones that plug into the older models. If you don’t have the shoes, no loss. If you don’t have an iPod, no loss (the shoes still work, believe it or not). But when you have both together, they automagically share information on your running sessions, upload it to your computer when you charge the ‘Pod (or ‘Phone,) and can link it to a global web site where your friends (and, I suppose Doctors) can see your progress over time.I seem to recall that the shoes talk to the iPods over Bluetooth, which opens up many other possibilities. It should be able to communicate with other Bluetooth devices, like cell phones, computers, Playstation 3/Wii game consoles, printers, PDAs, and the list goes on.Bluetooth was intended as an inexpensive and faster replacement for IR communications, so it should be economical enough to use in “free” meters, and does away with the need for special connecting cables. There are simple profiles in place so that a meter could upload a text file with your test results, or a pump could upload a log of it’s activity, with no need to install additional software on the computer (or phone, or, well you get the idea.)It’s been my experience that meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers. They don’t “get” the idea that software can expire just like their test strips. One that comes to mind has programs to link their meters to Palm-based PDAs, however the most recent model their version 1.something program supports was released before the year 2000. Version 3.something is available in their home country, but it’s not going to reach North America until they finish selling their out-of-date copies of the old version. It hasn’t registered with them that people who get the kind of feedback that the programs allow are more likely to test more often, and therefore generate more strip sales for them!There’s a meter on the market that loads a cartridge of 17 test strips at a time. It even has an “acoustic mode”, where it beeps out the reading. The idea is that someone who is visually impaired can more easily use this meter, since they don’t have to handle test strips, or see the results on the screen. There’s one big problem. They forgot about the lancets! The same company has a lancing device that has 6 lancets in an cartridge, and when loading them, there are no exposed sharps, before or after use. It makes sense for them to use that kind of lancing device with the meter I’ve mentioned above, yet the only meter they offer the device with takes individual test strips.In an ideal world, they could integrate the lancets into the test strip cartridge, with a lancet for each test strip, after all, lancets are one-time-use things. There’s enough space in the cartridge to do it. They could pack in their 6-shooter lancing device, making a safe and easy system for the visually challenged user, yet they stick with the single exposed sharps lancet device, and suggest that if you have trouble seeing, or if your hands tend to tremble, that you get someone else to load your lancing device for you. They have released two followups to the meter since then, and have stuck with the single-use lancing device, when they have a better solution available within their own company!I’ve talked to their representatives in person and on the phone, and most of them just don’t get it. Occasionally, I hear, “That sounds like a good idea” but that’s where it ends. Trying to get them to listen is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.It’s not just a problem with one manufacturer, either. I’ve tried others, where a simple firmware change in their meter would improve usability many-fold, yet my words fall on deaf ears. It’s not like it would increase the cost of the device, since it’s a one-time program change that then gets installed in millions of meters. There’s no manufacturing changes needed from the upgrade, except to change the file that gets loaded into the meter when it’s made. It’s a less-costly change than adding new meter colours, which seems to be one of the trends these days.I’m left with the feeling that those who design these things don’t actually use them themselves, something that should be a pre-requisite for this kind of product, even if it’s only for a short term.

Elliott|2009-09-28

I wonder if you folks noticed LifeScan’s demo on the release of version 3 of the iPhone/iTouch software. An existing meter which already speaks bluetooth to a pump can also talk to the i* with this new stuff (not yet available on Earth, apparently).

Magnetic Bar|2009-09-29

Apple is unlikely to respond.

uberVU – social comments|2009-10-24

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by egculbertson: #blankcheck inspired by @diabetesmine: get Apple to design all patient health tech (her orig. open letter here http://bit.ly/1QclAi)…

bed|2009-11-02

True. Loved it. Great idea. But if just the lobbyists allow APPLE INC. to get into Diabetes market. It will grow. And it will work.Wish it could work. By 2020 watched in documentary or so that out of every 5 Americans 1 would have diabetes. Something like that. It was strikingly out figure.

Rozi|2009-11-22

This is great. I was little upset that i can go to see the last comments in this blog so I see this comments is very excellent.

Open letter to Steve Jobs | HypoThesis|2009-12-07

[…] http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/04/an_open_letter_.html […]

Riva Greenberg: Got a Great Diabetes Product Or Application Idea? Apply Here | Twitmerlin – News, Celebs Gossip, Social Media|2010-03-03

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Riva Greenberg: Got a Great Diabetes Product Or Application Idea? Apply Here « Daily News|2010-03-03

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Dan Lock|2010-03-04

There are already people (like me) working on medical device usability. The problems here is that medical devices are not consumer devices – the level of testing required is much higher AND the market is much smaller. If your iPod or iPhone crashes (and mine have, several times) it’s no big deal. If your medical device goes down it could be really serious. That’s not to say progress isn’t, or can’t, be made. I wouldn’t bother asking Apple to help – they don’t have any reason to get involved in such a risky area and open themselves up to litigation etc. You would do better to lobby the device manufacturers and ask them to invest more money in usability. We have the ideas to make these things better but it isn’t easy when big pharma does not always want to invest in it!

Citylab » Blog Archive » Charmr: diabetes devices|2010-03-10

[…] da una lettera aperta che una paziente diabetica, Amy Tenderich, ha scitto a Steve Jobs, pregando il CEO di Apple di […]

Diabetes Mine 2010 Design Challenge | A Sweet Life|2010-03-13

[…] began hosting an annual design challenge two years ago, quite to her surprise, when she posted an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. She called for the gurus of consumer design to help revolutionize design […]

Diabetes Mine 2010 Design Challenge is Open! « Pharma 2.0|2010-03-22

[…] in the design of tools used by diabetes community. The competition all started as a result of a letter Amy posted on her blog in 2007 to Steve Jobs. She voiced what many in the diabetes community felt about their pumps , pens and monitors: […]

Rob Loughrey|2010-03-25

Sign me up! We need a facebook group so we can get the millions of names required to really make someone notice!

KPSS|2010-04-27

nice letter but Jobs is not read this articles.

A request for a different Apple gadget|2010-05-30

[…] this via Design Observer: An open letter to Steve Jobs with a request for Apple to design a gadget that will save lives. An insulin pump. The problem is […]

What kind of diabetes device would you like to see on the market today? | News 4 Diabetics|2010-06-10

[…] hit the market, and in the throwback 2007 days, I remember Amy Tenderich of Diabetesmine, writing an open letter to apple’s Steve Jobs Imploring him in his ingeniousness maybe create a slick device for the diabetes community ala the […]

What kind of diabetes device would you like to see on the market today? | News 4 Diabetics|2010-06-10

[…] hit the market, and in the throwback 2007 days, I remember Amy Tenderich of Diabetesmine, writing an open letter to apple’s Steve Jobs Imploring him in his ingeniousness maybe create a slick device for the diabetes community ala the […]

What piqued this week…|2010-06-30

[…] Diabetes Mine, a blog covering diabetes, this week put out an open letter to Apple (aka Steve Jobs) to design a better Insulin Pump. Well actually, the call was for a competition to design a better […]

50 Best Diabetes Blogs | Nursing Schools.net|2010-07-19

[…] with diabetes, from what to eat to what to read and everything in between. Recommended posts: “An Open Letter to Steve Jobs” and “Teens with Diabetes: Freedom is Their Secret […]

vic|2010-07-22

ironic that Steve Jobs now has to wear an insulin pump, no???

FirstCallMedical|2010-09-12

wooo.. nice letter man. I was just wondering are these big companies focusing only entertainment industry or will they also work for medical industry. —-Medicine Jobs

Jm Pocard|2010-09-14

Hello, i’ m nurse I would propose a other solution for monitoring glycémia and all data about health. I don’t know how to write Steve Jobs.thank you

dvla|2010-09-23

I would love to think Jobs read this but I am not sure he did. I thought he would get on board with all his kidney problems.

Ottawa Video Production|2010-09-23

I also don’t think meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers but if someone did look out they would make a fortune

John Mitchell|2010-11-29

Thank you very much for a really interesting resource!

haberi|2011-06-25

idea is great . some of my friend already using it. And they are satisfied from the results.

Recent business news|2011-06-25

i want to use this application and searching more details about it. your post helps me. Thanks for it.

Patriots Jersey|2011-08-15

I also don’t think meter makers really don’t care about input from their customers but if someone did look out they would make a fortune

Testing Out the iBGStar — First Plug-In Glucose Meter for the iPhone | The Diabetic Friend|2011-09-30

[…] innovative company that designed iBGStar for Sanofi-Aventis. The AgaMatrix guys have followed my push for iPhone-ish diabetes devices from day one. And now that they’ve actually created the first-ever medical device that actually […]

Julie|2011-10-06

Wow. Smart thinking!

Aaron|2011-10-18

Cheers to a great visionary who stayed ahead of the curve and kept the world guessing as to what he would come up with next!

RN to BSN|2011-10-18

Thanks to the man who took technology to the next level. May his inventions live on forever!

Darence|2012-01-04

Unparalleled accuracy, uenquovical clarity, and undeniable importance!

k tedford|2012-01-28

A contact lens is now being worked on to take glucose readings – it needs to be able to wirelessly send to cloud like the withington scale and back down to pc, iphone etc to an app that can estimate insulin needed along with ability to take pic of food eating – this food app is already available on iphone then if you wear pump send that wirelessly. LETS DREAM BIG want this during my granddaughter’s life span

k tedford|2012-01-28

A contact lens is now being worked on to take glucose readings — it needs to be able to wirelessly send to cloud like the withington scale and back down to pc, iphone etc to an app that can estimate insulin needed along with ability to take pic of food eating — this food app is already available on iphone then if you wear pump send that wirelessly. LETS DREAM BIG want this during my granddaughter’s life span

spirit guides|2012-05-16

Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Thanks!

Kumar|2012-08-08

I believe you have got Apple a new direction to innovate on. Moreover Apple leads the industry or sector wherever it starts its process. Great thinking and excellent writing.

Blogger Round Table Series Session 1: Diabetes Bloggers Find New Purpose, Connections Through Blogging | JDRF WP Test|2012-12-16

[…] In April 2007 I penned an “Open Letter to Steve Jobs,” which reverberated around the mainstream media and blogosphere. It was a rally cry to apply […]

Rethinking diabetes management and care | Scope Blog|2012-12-19

[…] gained a bit of fame in 2007, when you wrote an open letter to the late Steve Jobs with a request to help make over the “clunky” and “clinical” medical […]

People with diabetes use iPods. | Island in the Net|2013-12-31

[…] Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design […]


Like it? Share with your friends!

0

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *