Meiqi: Thinking Smaller to Manage Diabetes with Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices (CGM)
Using the power of innovation to impact the world around us
SIGNALS+ NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION
Stay updated and leverage Signals+ latest insights, information and ideas on Connectivity, Digital Health, Electrification, and Smart Industry.
Thank you for subscribing to ADI Signals+. A confirmation email has been sent to your inbox.
You'll soon receive timely updates on all the breakthrough technologies impacting human lives across the globe. Enjoy!
CloseMEIQI: THINKING SMALLER TO MANAGE DIABETES WITH CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONITORING DEVICES (CGM)
A continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device may be small, but these systems are having a life-changing impact for millions of diabetics around the world. For Type 1 diabetics, finger sticks to check blood sugar are an all too common—but necessary—occurrence. In fact, this can be up to a 7 times a day occurrence. All this is done to get a single, point-in-time snapshot of one’s blood sugar. Unfortunately, this snapshot doesn’t show a diabetic’s blood sugar number in real-time. So the patient doesn’t realize if it’s going up or down and thus doesn’t have the kind of actionable insight needed to properly address the issue.
But now there’s hope for diabetics searching for relief from the inconvenience of finger sticks, test strips, and the glucose guessing game: a minimally invasive, CGM that’s a more convenient, more effective, and more affordable way to proactively manage blood sugar and health.
AT A GLANCE
COMPANY
Meiqi, China’s leading continuous glucose monitoring device (CGM) manufacturer
CHALLENGE
Make it easier for diabetics to get affordable, convenient, predictive care (not reactive) through CGM devices
GOAL
Develop breakthrough wearable, low power, compact, low cost, long-lasting CGM (Meiqi Gen 3 device)
ADI SOLUTION
Sensor for CGM device for impedance measurements
463M
Adult Diabetics Worldwide
$760B
Health Expenditure on Diabetes
7x/day
Average Daily Finger Sticks
79%
Adult Diabetics Living in Low & Middle-Income Countries
Source: Diabetes Facts and Figures for 2019
GOOD-BYE FINGER STICKS, HELLO ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS, COST SAVINGS
The world is turning to the convenience and accuracy of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and away from finger sticks and guesstimating glucose levels. Meiqi—China’s leading manufacturer of advanced CGM products—is showing the way. With 125 million-plus diabetics, China is home to the largest diabetic population in the world. To address this growing market, Meiqi is pushing the boundaries of technology, and, in partnership with Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), is developing a next-generation, integrated CGM wearable device (Meiqi Gen 3).
A CGM device uses a tiny sensor inserted under the skin to test blood sugar levels throughout the day and sends this data to a smartphone or watch and then on to the cloud. This near-real-time information helps diabetics adjust their physical activity, food intake, or insulin levels quickly, and helps prevent severe hyperglycemia or low blood sugar episodes from occurring.
Beyond this, the cost-savings benefits of a CGM device are also quite real. While the savings on needles and test strips are significant over a patient’s lifetime, the continual insights gained from a CGM helps them successfully monitor symptoms and help avoid the prohibitive costs of a serious medical procedure or hospital visit. The CGM empowers patients to manage their own health and change the way they eat or time medications, while providing an overall better quality of life, which to many is invaluable.
“One of our main challenges—and this is throughout the CGM industry—was SWaP (size, weight, and power) and ADI delivered a solution that completely addressed our needs. Beyond this, its collaboration, system-level understanding, and domain expertise really stood out … it proved to be far more than a component company.”Mr. Zhang Feng 章峰
CEO and Founder | Meiqi
HOW IT WORKS:
CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONITORING DEVICES
CONVENIENT, PREDICTIVE, INSIGHTFUL, DIABETES MANAGEMENT
As medicine moves from being reactive to more predictive (for example, CGM), finding the right signal-processing expertise to deliver this technology is critical. In fact, the transition to predictive and personalized medicine becomes impossible without this technical expertise.
This transition rests on the quality of continuous patient insights—is the blood sugar too high due to exercise or too low due to poor eating habits?—and the ability to monitor and judge these insights more accurately and decisively over time.
With accurate, clinical-grade data for glucose levels, patients are empowered to deliver appropriate insulin medication, all of which helps prevent further diabetic complications such as blood vessel damage, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and diabetic coma. Also, these reports are delivered to the cloud to help provide detailed glucose information over days, weeks and months, which healthcare professionals use to make better informed decisions on effective diabetes management. A finger stick simply cannot deliver this level of precision and proactive data.
ADI CONTRIBUTES TO CLINICAL-GRADE HEALTH DATA MANAGEMENT
System Structure for Meiqi CGM Device
Complete CGM Solution
Hospital Version
A sensor and transmitter plus recorder; designed for hospitals to scan and store a patient’s glucose data.
Patient Version
Sensor and transmitter only; patients use smartphone app to scan their glucose data at home.
NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLOGY FOR NEXT-GENERATION CONTINUOUS MONITORING SYSTEM
Meiqi’s continuous glucose monitoring device is designed for ultra-convenience and precision function. It features a small, wearable patch, sprouting a needle, sensor, and next-generation mobile impedance measurement technology from ADI.
For its all-important sensor element, Meiqi chose ADI’s AD5950 for its small size and low voltage features. Beyond this, Meiqi found a partner in Analog Devices that went far beyond a mere parts provider. With ADI, it discovered a trusted ally with extensive system-level knowledge, deep domain expertise, and crucial digital healthcare experience, particularly in wearables for chronic disease management. Also, ADI’s Chinese office provided Meiqi with invaluable local market insight and fast turnaround time, helping it gain a critical time-to-market advantage.
ADI AND MEIQI:
ALWAYS LEADING, NEVER FOLLOWING
As the leading provider of continuous glucose monitoring systems in China, Meiqi didn’t just choose any tech partner to help it design its Gen3 model. First and foremost, it required a collaborator with a shared leadership vision, and uncompromising drive to innovate and deliver lifesaving healthcare insights.
ADI rose to the top.
From day one, over 50 years ago, ADI’s goal has been to help unlock human potential with technologies that solve engineering’s toughest challenges—including helping diabetics monitor their blood sugar and proactively control their health.
The challenge in CGM was power and size restrictions, which was right in ADI’s digital health technological wheelhouse. Together, Meiqi and ADI form one of the world's most advanced CGM duos, helping diabetics control their blood sugar in a convenient and affordable way.
“Meiqi is a disruptive company in a disruptive field (digital health) and we need a partner with a similar vision. Analog Devices fit that profile exactly. It insists on the principle of technical leading and bringing unique value to industry customers.”Mr. Zhu Jun 祝军
R&D VP | Meiqi
