Timely approach to diabetes

By Eleanor Bailey
Lois Piner and Anna Matecki of Peters Township watch as Brynlee Robinson of Canonsburg demonstrates how the DG operates during the Invention Convention held at Seton LaSalle. The St. Louise de Marillac students designed the device to regulate blood sugar levels and dispense insulin when necessary to diabetics, including Robinson, who was diagnosed with the disease at age 4.
Diabetes does not stop Brynlee Robinson.
The St. Louise de Marillac fourth-grade student plays soccer for Century United, hoping one day to play professionally. She writes, planning also to become an author. She even eats Kit Kat bars.
“They’re my favorite,” admitted the daughter of Ashley and Jeffrey Robinson.
“I can eat anything and do anything anybody else can,” continued the Canonsburg resident. “I just have to give myself an amount of insulin to make sure my sugars don’t go too high.”
Robinson checks her sugar levels by pricking her finger. A little pod attached to her body pumps insulin into her system. “I can control the pod and tell it to give me a certain amount,” she said.
Diagnosed at age 4, this is how Robinson and many other diabetics cope with the disease.

By Eleanor Bailey
Brynlee Robinson, Lois Piner and Anna Matecki helped design a watch that would dispense insulin to a diabetic when sugar levels fell outside of the normal ranges to create energy. The St. Louise de Marillac students tied for second place in their division during the Invention Convention held at Seton LaSalle High School.
However, Robinson, along with Anna Matecki and Lois Piner of Peters Township, hope to change and simplify the process through the use of a product they developed and displayed at the Invention Convention held recently at Seton LaSalle High School. Dubbed DG, the design utilizes wristwatch technology to dispense medication.
“It’s a smartwatch for kids with Type I Diabetes,” explained SLS president Lisa C. Osterhaus. “The DG solves the problems of carrying heavy equipment on a daily basis and making frequent trips to the nurse’s office, because it acts as an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor while tracking steps.”
Robinson’s trips to the nurse’s office and other side effects of her disease disturbed Matecki and Piner enough that they longed to get involved in the project.
“We’ve seen what happens at school – like how often she is taken from the classroom to the nurse’s office to check her blood sugar or to boost it because she is too low,” said Matecki.
“When she has gotten very shaky and you can tell that she is not herself, it can be very scary because we don’t know what could happen in the long run,” Piner added.
“The effects of this disease can be very bad,” they both said. “So we wanted to really help our friend.”
By collaborating on their ideas, Matecki said that the group was “able to elevate” what they had originally thought. Convenience and ease drove the design. Every two to five minutes, a little needle enters the body. The watch monitors if blood sugars are reaching highs or lows and if insulin is required.
The procedure is virtually painless, according to Robinson. “The little stick is so small and it goes in for like a second, so it wouldn’t hurt at all. You won’t be able to really feel it. It also eliminates all the stuff I have to carry around. It eliminates the marks on my body from the pod. And, it would be way easier to just carry around a small watch,” she said.
Robinson has been commended for using her personal experience to innovate, collaborate with her team members and develop a solution using critical thinking that would be life changing for those with her disease.
“Future leaders of our communities will need these types of skills to not only succeed, but to change the world for the better,” said Osterhaus.

By Eleanor Bailey
Brynlee Robinson checks her insulin levels while Lois Piner looks on. The friends, along with Anna Matecki, demonstrated how their watch would work during the Invention Convention held at Seton LaSalle High School.
Matecki and Piner hope to change the world for the better as veterinarians. Both are animal lovers. While the daughter of Bridget and Edmund Matecki owns a lizard and her brother has a fish tank, the Piner family plans on getting a dog once Graham, 5, gets a little older.
“We don’t have pets because my little brother is a handful,” the daughter of Farrell and James Piner said.
“I have a very large soft spot in my heart for animals,” continued Piner, who has one other sibling, Calvin, 8. “I do like helping people and animals who can’t do certain things or have diseases.”
Regardless of their career paths, the three friends promise to “stick” together in their endeavors to make life easier for diabetics. “It’s not always about solving our problems, but solving problems in the real world. Solving everyone’s problems,” they said enthusiastically.
Because they have fared well in competition – they tied for second at the SLS event and had entered their invention in previous shows – they are confident they have a potential life-altering product.
“So many people have came up to us and told us they knew somebody with diabetes and it would be helpful for many people who have this disease,” they said. “So yes, we think it would be a very good idea that could happen. It would be a little bit tricky to truly create that out of all the technology, but it would be very good for that to really happen.”
Robinson added, “I would love to help people with this disease. It would be cool.”
Cool was the day spent at the Invention Convention. All three agreed it was fun and meaningful.
“We got to see everybody’s else’s ideas and the problems that should be solved. We also got to present one of the biggest problems in our lives and show how we can fix it.”