Don’t worry, Don this Smart Cap and be Happy!

Sunila Kelkar reviews this tiny smart cap which helps reduce anxiety while managing Diabetes in everyday life

Timesulin, a delightful little device which helps people with Diabetes to time their insulin, is already being hailed as an example of how complex innovations can simplify lives of those with Diabetes. The raison d'être of Timesulin is to reduce the stress associated with injecting insulin – a recurring issue of wondering when you last injected insulin often resulting in missed or double injections. Timesulin's reliability is established by the fact that it succeeds in achieving this goal. Simply put, the aim of Timesulin is to tell you when you took your last insulin injection to ensure you do not take a potentially life threatening double dose of insulin. Timesulin has no buttons, no instruction manual or complicated activation steps to follow. You place the Timesulin cap on your insulin pen and Timesulin starts indicating the time difference between two dosages of insulin.

History of Timesulin

Mr John Sjölund (the CEO and co-founder of Patients Pending Ltd, the company which makes Timesulin) has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since the age of four. In 2010 after years of living with the anxiety of injecting insulin, Mr Sjölund gathered a team to create Timesulin with the hope of reducing the daily anxiety in a user friendly manner.

Compatibility

Timesulin works with the most common pre-filled insulin pens from leading brands. Timesulin website also allows people to contact them to verify if a specific insulin pen is compatible with the Timesulin cap.

Timesulin caps work with these insulin pens:

• FlexPens -Novorapid, Levemir, Victoza, Novolog, Novolog Mix 70/30, Protaphane HM (ge), Novomix 30
• Solostar – Apidra, Insuman, Lantus
• Kwikpen – Humalog, Humalog 50/50, Humalog 75/25
• FlexTouch – Novorapid, Tresiba 200, Levemir, Tresiba 100

Summing up

To sum up, Timesulin is an effective product especially as it offers a way to do away with the mental agony of "Did I take my insulin or not?" Timesulin is available online is priced at GBP 25 (Approx INR 2400). We welcome our readers to submit their experiences with products that improve their quality of life wearable technology for health and fitness.

Disclaimer – The author and the editorial team of Diabetes Health have no conflicts of interest to disclose. They do not endorse, support or recommend any particular product or device. Readers are requested to check with their doctors before using any application or device.

How Timesulin cap works

1. Remove the small plastic tab on the Timesulin cap.
2. Remove the plastic protective peg. This will activate the battery and timer display will show 00:00.
3. Administer your insulin dosage
4. Replace the Timesulin cap onto your insulin pen.
5. The Timesulin cap start to count the seconds from when it is fitted onto the insulin pen, starting at one second (00:01) The timer mode is in Minute/ Minute: Second/ Second (MM:SS) mode
6. After 59 minutes and 59 seconds, the timer mode will switch from minute/ minute: second/ second to Hour/Hour: Minute/Minute (HH:MM) mode. This will continue till 99 hours and 59 minutes. If you have not administered another insulin shot in 100 hours, the Timesulin unit will stop counting.
7. To reactivate the timer, simply remove the cap for longer than 8 seconds and repeat step 3.

Note: Remember to switch your needle between each injection so no insulin gets inside Timesulin.

An 8-second delay has been incorporated in the resetting of the Timesulin cap allowing you to remove the cap and check your pen's insulin levels without resetting the timer. Timesulin cap is fitted with a non-replaceable, built in battery which lasts at least 12 months depending upon usage, climate, etc. A fading display screen indicates that the battery is running low on power and the Timesulin cap needs to be replaced.

USER REVIEW

When my schedule is busy, I just bring out my pen and check the time since my last shot and go from there. Before bed, I check the time on Timesulin cap, just in case I have forgotten to take it. I no longer have surprising hypos and hypers, no longer have to leave what I am doing to remember whether I took it or not. It fits perfectly into my busy schedule. I never thought for a second that this problem could ever be solved, because it had to do with me and my own ability to remember. Now, that I've tried it? I don't think I can ever go without it. "With Timesulin, Challenge Accepted".

– A medical student who was diagnosed with Diabetes 9 years ago.