Didget, the glucose monitoring game

[Alareth]

Bayer is marketing a glucose monitor for children called the Didget.

After using it to run a test, the child connects it to a Nintendo DS to be awarded points used for unlockables and items in a game.

Apparenty it was the idea of a man whose son continually lost his monitor but was always able to keep track of his Gameboy.

http://www.bayerdidget.co.uk

[Harpyja]

Bayer's DIDGET™ meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel —the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that although his son Luke was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, he could always find his Nintendo™ Game Boy. Paul left his job to become a medical technology entrepreneur and pioneer in 2000, founding his own company, Guidance Interactive Healthcare, which, with support from Nintendo, developed a product that would help his son manage his diabetes.




That's brilliant. Not only will it make kids less likely to lose the meter, it will also help with the stigma of coping with such a problem. I bet you that the elementary school kid with that thing is probably going to be one of the more popular kids on the playground. The only problem I can see is that it won't work on the new Nintendo DSi, as it attaches through the cartridge slot, but knowing how flimsy the Nintendo DS Action Replay is, it's probably necessary to keep the meter from being too small or fragile to work. It would be nice to have this integrate with more popular games, such as the upcoming Pokemon SoulSilver/GoldHeart games.

[tesscaline]

I think this is a great idea!

I mean, as a mom, one of the ways I would get my son to pick up his toys was to make a game out of it. Making a game out of anything that would be boring or tedious, actually, helped me get him to do things that the average kid wouldn't want to do. This is basically the same thing -- making a game out of keeping your blood sugar checked and measured, as well as making the testing device matter to the kid so they don't lose it.

Positively brilliant!