A mobile based health-monitoring system for patients with diabetes
Date
2014
Authors
Otieno, Francis Odhiambo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Diabetes is a chronic disease that needs to be regularly monitored to keep the blood sugar
level within normal ranges. This monitoring depends on a diabetic treatment plan that is
periodically reviewed by the doctor. Currently, patients have to do the medical checkups and
examinations from prescribed appointments after every periodic Doctor visit. According to
the result of this medical checkups and examination, the doctor may need to modify the
treatment plan. This creates a major problem since this process is tiring and time consuming
while it creates a challenge of untimely monitoring due to lack of consistency and accuracy
records of glucose levels making diabetes management unmanageable and a threat to the
patient's life.
Mobile computing can improve the quality of the patients' life by providing systems that help
diabetes patients to monitor and control their diseases. These applications can help the
doctors by providing remote monitoring to the patient. A mobile-based monitoring solution
can be combined with communication technologies to present an integrated diabetesmonitoring
tool.
In this work we propose, a smartphone based monitoring and analysis application that
automatically gathers inference for diabetes monitoring parameters such as blood glucose and
weight, diet and exercise done by patient, in a manner that is transparent to the patient. This
work includes an inference, which provides notifications while remotely monitoring patient
health condition at the convenience of the patient and health practitioners.
Generation of inference rules was done with the aid of two medical doctors. The work was
tested and the results analyzed showed that it was able to gather inference and monitor patient
conditions while giving alerts and notifications. All of the components yielded accurate
analyses of glucose levels of the patients and it proved to be a novel utility in helping in
monitoring of Diabetic cases. The patients reported satisfaction with the system because they
felt connected to their physician and also giving them reminders for checking their sugar
level, taking insulin or notification in case of critical levels.
Description
A Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Mobile Telecommunications and Innovation (MSc. MTI)
Keywords
Diabetes, mobile health, Mobile computing, Health, mhealth