Client: Brian Burnett, Librae Limited

Product: Librae, software for control of diabetes

The situation: Managing diabetes revolves around regulating the amount of glucose in the blood. Too high and you risk damage to small blood vessels in the long term; too low and you can feel faint and may lose consciousness. Diabetes management involves regular testing and responding to the result, which may be too late to stop the glucose level going out of control.
Librae, a spinout company from Robert Gordon University, developed complex algorithms which permitted someone with diabetes to enter events into a model and decide in advance what to eat or do in order to optimise his or her control.

Mountain Ash Consulting's role: We were asked to help identify user requirements and test the early prototypes of the software.

Implementation: After interviewing people with diabetes, parents of children with diabetes as well as nurses and diabetologists, we established a Customer Advisory Group (CAG), which was instrumental in the development process. These users provided the Voice of the Customer, validating the requirements and specifying the features and functionality which would help them gain better control.

Once early prototypes were available, the advisory group were trained in its use. We held regular meetings over the country to offer assistance and to gather feedback. A video was made of some of the users and they were encouraged to talk aloud of their experience as they tried out new options.

Results: All this information was reviewed and analysed, then decisions taken as to how the needs of the customer could be incorporated into new versions of the software model. As a result, Librae allowed people with diabetes to be proactive in preventing peaks and troughs in their blood glucose levels. It also gave them a tool to experiment with 'what if' scenarios to explore new options with no risk to themselves.

Librae went on to win Scotland's spinout company of the year in recognition of its technical innovation. CEO Brian Burnett commented, "Rowan's work with the CAG was invaluable in helping to turn our technology into a really useful product.".