Our team is planning to work on a project surrounding blood-sugar monitoring software for diabetics. We plan to focus on the computer software and interface rather than the interface of the glucometer itself. This software is primarily used by doctors and some patients to view glucose levels and histories recorded on their glucometer. We have already begun discussing this topic with a medical professional and have found that no single software product on the market satisfactorily addresses some of the most basic and necessary needs of physicians in this area. The idea we're currently working with is to create a prototype for a system that would allow doctors and patients to view correct and most valuable data from the glucometer. This will allow them to make accurate assessments and recommendations to the patient. This is a real life problem and the solution could of course have real market value.
Our expected users are Type I and Type II Diabetes patients of all ages. These patients take up to several blood sugar levels per day, which makes for a very large amount of data that can become difficult to manage and keep track of over time. The software is intended to provide the doctor with real-time access to patient data via the web. We have not determined whether the software will employ a wireless technology such as blue-tooth or require the user to sync their glocometer with their computer manually on a regular basis. Because there is no specific target age, this software will have to be very versatile and able to be used easily in settings ranging from school to the workplace to nursing homes. Our software will be designed to help these users by providing an automated system which will not only store their readings, but organize and manage it in a way that will help both them and their doctors pull meaningful conclusions from it.
Dr. Beth Motzkin of Pediatric Endocrinology in Coral Springs , Florida has identified several important aspects of patient's records that she and her staff address when analyzing a patients records. As a doctor, Dr. Motzkin tries to determine how the patients blood sugar levels were affected by their activity. Observing a patient with high blood sugar levels is of little value if it is not taken into account what they ate, the amount of exercise the patient got and how much insulin taken. Our program would ideally be able to present data in such a way that blood sugars could be easily related to a patient's activity. A doctor could easily see that a spike in blood sugar was related to a snack eaten a few minutes earlier. Although it is beyond the scope of our project, it is important to note that our software would rely on Glucometers being able to record such relevant data. Our software will be created on the assumption that such a Glucometer exists. If and when Glucometers begin taking in data aside from pure blood sugar levels our software will run on a platform that will gather the data and output it in a useful manner.
The software our team will be designing will mainly be used by the endocrinologists and the patients other doctors. A major detail we must consider when designing the software is that not all patients take the time to take the required blood/sugar readings each day. These patients would probably not spend a lot of time running the program and analyzing their blood sugar levels. Therefore, our software should be able to take the data from the glucometer and store the information in a database with the minimum patient effort.
Another definite requirement for the software is that it uses the minimum amount of memory and hardware possible to perform the necessary tasks. Since the program will mainly be used by the doctors and nurses, the computer systems may be old and not capable of processing a program that takes a large amount of memory. The program should be compatible with Windows operating systems since the majority of PCs run on the Windows platform.
A feature that is not entirely necessary, but should be included is the programs ability to collect all of the data from the glucometer and store it into a database as soon as the program is run. The plug-and-upload feature will give the user the ability to quickly store their blood-sugar readings from the glucometer and send them to a doctor from the comfort of their home. If the user is limited on time and can't make a doctor's appointment, they can simply plug in their glucometer into their PC and run our software. The user should then be able to export the data to a file and email the file to their doctor for analysis. No matter how the data is entered into the software, the program should be able to graph the information and find averages over time.
Peak blood sugar levels as well as minimum levels should be displayed by the program in order to give the doctor information about what time of the day the patient should change their diet. If the patient has any bad eating habits at certain times during the day or week the doctor will be able to find these times by looking at the blood sugar graph and averages for particular times of the day.
A feature that might not be implemented, but would be nice to have is some sort of communication between the user's software and a database on the Doctor's machine. After authentication the user's data would be automatically sent to the doctor. The doctor would then be able to contact the patient if they are not taking the readings necessary or notify the user increase or decrease their blood sugar levels without having to spend extra time making an appointment. The feature would not replace the appointment but instead add doctor feedback in between appointments for those users who do not follow the recommended procedures.
Previous work in the field
http://www.bddiabetes.com
The site contains information on how to monitor a patients blood sugar level over time. The site features software that users can purchase to help monitor and graph their blood sugar level. The interface and features of the software will help us when our group designs our monitoring software. We can analyze the blood sugar monitoring software that is on the market and apply our user needs to make improvements in the features when designing our software.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DA/00005.html
The site contains information about common reasons why patients blood sugar level fluctuates. The information will be useful to us when designing the portion of our program that analyzes blood sugar data. The site also contains information regarding preventing drastic blood sugar fluctuation. The information regarding fluctuation will give us an idea of possible suggestions or alerts to send the user about the analyzed data. If we let the users make notes about the types of activities they were involved in before blood sugar readings, they program should be able to list possible activities that may be affecting their health.
This software allows users to upload their data, and instantly create reports and graphs in an organized format presentable to your health care provider. This software package seems to have many of the features we would like to incorporate into our package. It does not appear however to provide data in real-time to physicians, which is a major point of our software.
This software allows users to keep all of their test results in an online log book, and allows for customized target ranges. It also provides charts and graphs of blood sugar levels. Although the data is online, it appears to be just a personal report sort of system, and not one that is available to the patient's doctor. The description states that a patient can only send data to healthcare teams via fax or email, which is not ideal nowadays.
This article explains how deal with data and avoid information overload. It shows how using software, a patient can look for groups of abnormal values and can focus on the most significant patterns. Some patterns are easy to spot, others are not, and the graphical representations of test data that these programs provide help patients to deal with these issues efficiently.
Title: DIABETES TECHNOLOGY THE EDGE OF A NEW ERA.
Authors: Stallard, Jim
Source: Countdown; Spring2003, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p35, 5p
Document Type: Article
Subject Terms: BLOOD sugar monitoring -- Equipment & supplies
ISSN: 1070-9282
The source explains new technology in blood sugar monitoring systems. This gives our group a sense of what type of information will be stored in the database model we design.
Title: Controlling diabetes at the keybord.
Authors: Dinsmoor, Robert
Source: Countdown; Summer97, Vol. 18 Issue 3, p26, 2p, 1c
Document Type: Article
Subject Terms: DIABETES -- Diagnosis
ISSN: 1070-9282
The article explains how the use of personal computers can help a patient control their diabetes. It talks about blood sugar monitoring software and the types of software that are on the market. Different advantages of using PC's for monitoring are discussed.
Title: The mind body diabetes revolution : a new program for better blood sugar control
Authors: Surwit, Richard S.
Publisher: Free Press,
Pub date: c2004.
Pages: 265 p.
ISBN: 0743249917
This article explains alternative methods for improving blood sugar levels, which could be used in our project to give us a sense in the differences of patients. Part of the book explains how stress can affect blood sugar levels. The reference will help us understand that some fluctuations in blood sugar levels may be related to causes outside of diet.
Title: Research Use of the AIDA Diabetes Software Simulation Program: A Review
Author: Eldon D. Lehmann
Source: Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics Aug2003, Vol. 5 Issue 4, p641
Document Type: Article
This review of the AIDA diabetes software simulator talks about research applications of the popular free software. Various research workers in the diabetes computing field have put this software to use. By looking at current diabetes software, we can see what the simulator can currently do for both diabetics and endocrinologists.
Title: Feasibility and usefulness of dedicated software and e-mail for self-monitoring blood glucose in treating diabetes
Authors: Perlemuter, L.; Yomtov, B.
Document Type: Article
ISSN: 0742-3071
The article looks at how computer software and e-mail could be used in blood glucose monitoring. It also looks at the idea of sending a patient's glucose levels remotely. This will help us think about how we could implement a remote transmission of glucose readings through software.