Common Sensing’s Gocap
Three years after Common Sensing revealed its prototype for a connected sensor for the caps of disposable insulin pens to measure insulin dosages, the Cambridge-based digital health startup ‘s technology is the focus of a study carried out by principal investigators at the Joslin Diabetes Center. Common Sensing President and Co-founder James White described the study, in which the device company has partnered with Sanofi-Aventis and Dexcom, in a phone interview with MedCity News.
The challenge Common Sensing seeks to address is to provide clinicians with greater insights into their patients’ insulin use between office visits. More than one-third of Type 2 diabetic insulin users have adherence issues, costing roughly $2,500 per user.
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The study will measure insulin pen use and continuous blood glucose response automatically, around the clock for 125 participants, according to a Common Sensing document describing the trial. One goal is to produce valuable, actionable data that primary care physicians can use to provide relevant feedback to their patients. By deploying the technology in these real-world settings, White hopes the data will be used to support the development of an intervention model for diabetes patients, which does not currently exist. The idea is to make it easier for primary care physicians to have more meaningful interactions with patients in the short time they have together.
Sanofi is funding the study and Dexcom is providing continuous glucose monitoring wearable devices.
The plan is to turn the “Gocap” monitor and other connected devices into a targeted service to improve insulin management. The cap is designed to log insulin doses, distinguish between insulin — such as fast-acting or long-acting, identify pen type, monitor temperature, record average insulin use and offer reminders and alerts for dosages, Common Sensing’s website noted.
On the topic of how much data primary care physicians would be able to process before they risk drowning in data, White explained that the needs of primary care physicians would differ from, say, an endocrinologist.
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“For a primary care physician, it would be useful to provide a snapshot of a patient’s behavior,” White said. “Are they taking the right amount of insulin and the right type of insulin? Are they taking too much or not enough?”
On the other hand, an endocrinologist has the luxury of having a bit more time to spend with patients. He or she might be looking much more at tweaking numbers to improve their patients’ health through diet and fitness, for example.
Common Sensing has raised $5 million to date and counts Qualcomm Ventures, Sanofi and Waterline Ventures among its investors. The goal of the company’s fundraising activities is to validate its technology through a series of studies.
Looking back on how the connected device market in diabetes has evolved, White recalled there being few to no other business like his in 2013. Since then, the Internet of Things has meant the development of several companies embedding sensors in different aspects of a diabetic’s devices. Eli Lilly-backed Companion Medical developed a connected insulin pen for use with Lilly’s Humalog or Novo Nordisk’s Novolog rapid-acting insulin, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the summer. Timesulin embeds sensors in insulin caps. But from White’s perspective, this market segment is too young for any one company to dominate.
