If I could redesign any medical device, I would attempt to change the current design of an artificial larynx. The original device is incredibly useful for its ability to allow those with damaged vocal cords to communicate with a voice by producing vibrations usually provided by the vocal cords. However, the sound it generates is very robotic and difficult to understand in many situations. I would like to change this device to create a clearer and more human sound, potentially by including an option to alter the frequency of the vibrations for different mouth orientations, or through the use of a different method controlled by the user (such as a dial on the device).

There are many medical devices that can always be improved in some way to make healthcare better for patients. One medical device I would improve is the glucose monitor for diabetic patients. Currently, there are two ways to test the glucose level in patients: the standard blood glucose meter and the continuous glucose monitor. The standard BGM is a disposable needle prick that gives one single reading of the blood glucose. However, the continuous glucose monitor consists of a needle sensor inserted into the arm and changed every 2 weeks. It is able to connect the device to the patient's smartphone using Bluetooth, and the doctor is able to keep track of the patient's glucose levels on their end as well. Although this is a huge improvement for diabetic patients, there are complications with the device losing signal in extreme heat or with sweat. The continuous sensor is also uncomfortable for patients since it stays in the skin. Improving the glucose monitor by creating a non-invasive device that can still accurately track the patient's glucose levels would truly be a great medical improvement. As of now, there is no FDA approved infrared or non-invasive sensor. Using infrared light absorption to detect glucose levels would prevent the skin irritation from the needle and avoid both the single-use disposables and the biweekly disposable needle monitor. Of course, this is something that would need more clinical testing and research. Having a mother and other family members with diabetes, I know this is something that would really be helpful for them.

Your concept of non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring seems to me an excellent example of an idea where improvement of the medical device does not necessarily include additional functionalities but rather the elimination of the factor that complicates the patients' experience. I believe that if the blood glucose level can be successfully tracked without the need of the sensor being introduced under the skin, then it will be definitely more convenient for patients.

The most important problem in this situation will be connected with guaranteeing that convenience will not undermine the reliability of the measurements. As the continuous glucose monitor plays the role of the device, on the basis of which a decision about patients' health condition is made, the comfort of its design might be outweighed by the low accuracy of measurements. So, in case of the choice between a non-invasive but less accurate monitor and the invasive but more accurate monitor, what one would you choose?

@randa Hey Randa, I really like your ideas to improve continuous glucose monitors. I wanted to suggest something in addition to your improvements. Do you think it would be possible to implement a prediction curve as well using machine learning? Right now you can find thousands of patient's glucose levels in public databases. What if you use machine learning to try to predict the next few hours of continuous glucose monitoring data to avoid dangerously high or low blood sugar events for diabetic patients help patients and doctors manage diabetes. It's something I tried in one of NJIT's machine learning classes and it showed to be promising.

if I could redesign one medical device that I have used before it would be the pulse oximeter. Everytime I have used this device at the hospital, it always worked but I remember finding an interesting study which showed that the pulse oximeter tend to show inaccurate readings for people of a darker skin tone compared to people with a lighter skin tone. This is because the pulse oximeter works by emitting light to the skin and because the lighter you are, the more light you reflect, the reading is most likely accurate for lighter skin toned people. I believe if we changed the type of sensor from a light sensor to maybe a heat sensor but that could calibrate to a range of different body temperature. Assuming a person had a severe fever, this person's reading through the pulse oximeter would still register. But I welcome any advice on this idea, I do not know how doable it is to calibrate a range of temperatures on a device as small as the pulse oximeter.