Development of Syringe Drawing Device for Reducing Insulin Injection Errors in Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Objective: To assess the satisfaction, accuracy and precision of a syringe drawing device prototype for reducing insulin injection errors found in diabetic patients at Sakaeo Crown Prince Hospital. Method: The tool development research was conducted from March 2016 to January 2017. A prototype of the syringe drawing device was created and assessed by various groups of testers in a consecutive order, i.e. five healthcare professionals, a preliminary group of 10 patients, a group of 30 patients and a group of seven pharmacists. An 8-item questionnaire was utilized to evaluate the participant’s satisfaction. To pass the satisfaction test, each item of the questionnaire had to have an average score of 3.5 points (out of 5). The accuracy was acceptable if the relative errors were not more than 15%, 5% and 5% for insulin doses of 10, 44 and 82 units, respectively. The precision was acceptable if the values of coefficient of variation (CV) were not more than 10% for all three doses. The prototype was tested and improved until all testing passed according to the criteria. Results: After all tests and improvements, the device prototype passed all the satisfaction tests. Relative errors (or accuracy) and values of CV (or precision) were in acceptable limits. Conclusion: The development of the prototype of insulin drawing device was successful. A further development is needed to improve its usability. Keywords: syringe drawing device, injection error, insulin injection, diabetic patient