Adam Heller, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin who created the technology that led to the development of Abbott's freestyle blood glucose monitoring systems and freestyle navigator continuous glucose monitoring system, received the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation from president George W Bush in an award ceremony at the White House.

As co-founder of the company Therasense, which Abbott acquired in 2004, Heller developed revolutionary approaches to glucose measurement that convert biochemical concentrations to electrical signals. These technologies were the foundation for the development of Abbott's freestyle blood glucose monitoring system and freestyle navigator system for people with diabetes. The freestyle blood glucose monitoring systems have been commercially available since 2000, and the freestyle navigator system received FDA approval in March of 2008.

"On behalf of Abbott, we congratulate Dr Heller on this significant achievement," said Heather Mason, senior vice president, Abbott Diabetes Care. "The innovative and revolutionary technology developed by Dr Heller has significantly helped improve the quality of life for people with diabetes."

The freestyle lite blood glucose monitoring system is a small, discrete system that enables people to manage their diabetes by offering key features such as no coding, the world's smallest sample size, and state of the art strip performance with comprehensive alternate site testing.

The National Medal of Technology is the highest honour awarded by the president of the United States to America's leading innovators.