463 THE INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH assembled a diverse group of individuals on September 11–13, 2000, in McLean, Virginia, to discuss new technologies applied to diabetes treatment. The participants exemplified the multidisciplinary approach required in drug and device development with speakers including basic scientists, engineers, mathematicians, endocrinologists, regulatory officials, clinical trials development specialists, and corporate marketing and development. Presentations focused on advances in glucose monitoring and minimally invasive treatment modalities for diabetes mellitus. Over the last several years, much of the groundbreaking research in these areas has shifted from traditional academic centers to industry. Since researchers within industry have generally been somewhat less likely to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, reports from symposium have become an increasingly important source for new research findings. Glucose monitoring represents a $2.5 billion market with many new technologies under development. Two noninvasive techniques to continuously measure interstitial glucose levels—sonophoresis and ionophoresis—were discussed. Continuous assessment of interstitial glucose offers great advantages to patients with diabetes, including information on the vector of glucose changes, alarm capabilities for those with hypoglycemia unawareness, and detection of unrecognized trends. The stratum corneum (outermost layer of dead skin) provides the usual barrier to diffusion of interstitial glucose. I discussed that sonophoresis utilizes low-frequency ultrasound (5–100 kHz) to cause temporary cavitation of the stratum corneum. Cavitation induces aqueous channels to form in the stratum corneum through which small molecules such as glucose can diffuse. The degree of cavitation is inversely proportional to the frequency of ultrasound applied. The effectiveness of ultrasound induced cavitation can be easily assessed by reductions in skin resistance. Both in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that low-frequency ultrasound applied to human cadaveric skin or the intact rat could substantially increase glucose flux across the skin. Initial clinical trials indicated that low-frequency ultrasound applied for less than 2 min resulted in consistent glucose diffusion across the skin for a 12-h period. Preliminary studies indicated good correlation of glucose values over 4 h when compared to standard blood glucose measurements.1 The magnitude of glucose flux was significantly higher than generated by ionophoresis. This greater flux may translate to increased accuracy and shorter sampling time. Future studies are aimed at determining the effect of repeated ultrasound application and the possibility of cal-