Safety, simplicity and convenience of a modified prefilled insulin pen

Abstract

Objective: To assess patient perception of usability, safety and convenience of Next Generation FlexPen^® (NGFP), a newly modified version of the insulin delivery device FlexPen^® (FP), and the ease of attaching NovoTwist^™ and NovoFine^® needles. Research design and methods: A 35-item questionnaire was completed by patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes to compare the visual appearance of NGFP with FP (prefilled with either insulin detemir, insulin aspart or biphasic insulin aspart), the ease or difficulty of attaching needles onto NGFP and FP, and the ease of use, convenience, trust and safety of NGFP and FP when used to inject 20, 40 or 60 IU of insulin into an injection pillow. Results: A total of 64 patients completed all questions. Most patients found the identification of the type of insulin easiest with NGFP based on the label, the cartridge and the packaging, whereas < 5% found it easier with FP. Attaching the NovoTwist needle was significantly easier than attaching the NovoFine needle. Patients found NGFP significantly easier to use than FP when injecting insulin doses of 20 IU (52%), 40 IU (97%) and 60 IU (97%). NGFP instilled more trust and confidence than FP in 50% of patients, and 48% had no preference. Overall, 95% of patients preferred NGFP to FP and 77% of patients preferred the NovoTwist needle to the NovoFine needle. Conclusions: Measures of usability, convenience, patient perception of safety and trust, and overall patient preference with NGFP, showed that this newly modified pen was preferred to the widely used FP.

Keywords::

• aspart pen
• detemir pen
• FlexPen
• insulin device
• Next Generation FlexPen
• patient preference

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