Can a Kid Invent a Better Diabetes Management Tool?

Diabetes is a pain to manage, and the tools needed—meters, test strips, lancets, and pumps—don’t make it much easier. Here’s a chance to invent a killer app for diabetes management and pick up a cool $2,000. That’s the prize for kids under 18 in the 2009 Diabetes Mine Design Contest. Adults can snag $10,000.

The contest grew out of Diabetes Mine blogger Amy Tenderich’s open letter to Steve Jobs, when she asked the Apple mogul why his company could come up with such elegant hardware for listening to MP3s, while 20 million diabetics are stuck with kludgy, ugly equipment. Why not have customizable ring tones? Thumb wheels? Wireless pumps?

Entries are due Friday, so get cracking. Submissions can be a two-minute YouTube video or an elevator pitch; here’s how to enter.

I talked with Amy today at the Health2.0 conference in Boston. She’s bursting with great ideas on how new technology can make life better for the millions of people living with a chronic disease. “There’s a revolution of patients taking place,” says Amy, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2003. Soon, she’s convinced, people will be managing their illnesses with nifty Web tools just as easily as we now send instant messages and buy shoes. “It’s inevitable, unstoppable.” Why not help that revolution happen with a new app or tool?

Want some inspiration? Last year’s kid winners, Max Wieder, 10, and Ben Katz, 14, of Atlanta put together a nifty graphic demo of their “Maximum Slide” test strip dispenser, inspired by a Pez dispenser.