Helen Free dead at 98; invented the glucose urine dip-test

[Eddy Edson]

Helen Murray Free Dies at 98; Chemist Developed Diabetes Test (Published 2021)

She and her husband invented a dip-and-read paper strip that greatly simplified the diagnosis of the disease and paved the way for home test kits.

www.nytimes.com

Helen Murray Free, a chemist who ushered in a revolution in diagnostic testing when she co-developed the dip-and-read diabetes test, a paper strip that detected glucose in urine, died on Saturday at a hospice facility in Elkhart, Ind. She was 98.

The cause was complications of a stroke, her son Eric said.

Before the invention of the dip-and-read test in 1956, technicians added chemicals to urine and then heated the mixture over a Bunsen burner. The test was inconvenient, and, because it could not distinguish glucose from other sugars, results were not very precise.

Working with her husband, who was also a chemist, Ms. Free figured out how to impregnate strips of filter paper with chemicals that turned blue when glucose was present. The test made it easier for clinicians to diagnose diabetes and cleared the way for home test kits, which enabled patients to monitor glucose on their own.

 

[PattiEvans]

WOW! As a child back in the late 40s and early 50s I had a great aunt with diabetes and I well remember the bunsen burner on the go by the kitchen sink. It terrified me... so glad we have today's technology!

 

[mikeyB]

I can remember my late mum boiling chemical reagents in the kitchen, and a potty always being around. By the end of her diabetes career, she had all modern kit bar one thing - she could never get on with analog insulin, and stuck with porcine. I have continued flying the flag for dead pigs by taking Creon.