A Review on Integrating the Circular Economy in Diabetic Appliances Manufacture and Management for Sustainable Healthcare

Diabetes is becoming a rising concern for global health status due to the increasing number of diabetic individuals. This involves increased demand for medical equipment such as continuous glucose monitoring and insulin delivery devices. This may also lead to an increased amount of waste generation, carbon output from their production, and being discarded after use. Therefore, this review work suggests that this can be solved using the concept of circular economy (CE) strategies to curb their contribution to environmental pollution by adopting sustainable practices such as utilizing biodegradable materials in manufacturing, recycling and reusing the raw materials in the old devices and using them for new ones, and refurbishing the older devices for selling at discounted prices. Furthermore, the implementation of digital technologies such as AI and Big Data was also explored to determine their possible role in alleviating the carbon footprint (CF) generated by the manufacturing and management of diabetic care devices. The review concludes that the CE incorporation in diabetic healthcare can promote sustainable diabetes management while decreasing the CF in the diabetes healthcare system. However, further studies are still required to determine CE feasibility in developing nations.