William Grame’s invention to dispose of diabetics blood testing strips, has won the 11-year-old a trip to NASA. William’s invention is a small, plastic disposal unit that fits into testing kits used by diabetics. Diabetics can feed strips into it throughout the day, and dispose them all when it gets full. William has 3D-printed a device that safely stores diabetes test strips. It is well established that diabetes wreaks havoc on people’s blood sugar levels, but one thing we don’t usually think about is the amount of waste produced by all those blood tests that need to be taken daily when you have the disease. The 3D printed device hygienically stores all old blood test strips, and it is small enough to fit inside a diabetic’s portable test kit. His invention has won the year’s 5 to 6 category of the Origin Energy littleBIGidea competition, and he’ll be heading off to the US to visit NASA as part of his prize.
He created the blueprint for the blood disposal test strip disposal unit while on a 3D printing camp, and the judges said that the invention would be easy to immediately enter commercial production. When diabetics test their blood sugar levels throughout the day, they prick a finger and place a dot of blood on a special test strip. This is then inserted into a blood glucose meter, which tells them if they need to inject themselves with insulin to help manage their blood sugar levels. Grame, who has type 1 diabetes, was inspired to create the device after constantly getting in trouble for leaving his test strips on the floor at home. “There are around 380 million diabetics in the world, each testing their blood at least a few times a day,” said Grame at a presentation of his device this morning in Sydney.
He’s tested his device over the past few months and showed that it can securely store around 50 test strips, which means he only has to empty the device into the bin once a week. In the meantime, it keeps his blood-stained strips off the floor, and makes his life, and his family’s, a little easier . William hopes the device will ease the burden of daily testing for people around the world but he eventually wishes that people won’t need it. “My dream is for someone to find a cure for diabetes, so no one will have to use my invention,” he said. It is William’s first trip to the US, and he said he was most excited about seeing NASA and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
William has won “three or four” competitions with his invention but he is most proud of this one as it was the “biggest”.The judging panel included former host of ABC’s The New Inventors James O’Loghlin, Dr Rob Bell, from the CSIRO and host of Network Ten’s kids science show Scope and Shelly Horton, host and producer of Mamamia TV. “It was a tough job judging so many creative entries from students across the country. The blood test strip disposal unit is a winning idea, because it’s not only original and creative, but it’s also practical and innovative,” O’Loghlin said in a statement.
For more information please visit: http://www.littlebigidea.com.au
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