Towards an ICT-based platform for type 1 diabetes mellitus management

Abstract

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM1) is a metabolic disease that is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia due to a lack of pancreatic insulin production. This forces patients to perform several blood glucose measurements per day-by means of capillary glucometers-in order to infer a trend and try to predict future values. In this way, a decision about the insulin dosage that has to be exogenously injected to maintain glycemia within the desirable levels is made. Unfortunately, this method usually suffers from relatively high imprecision. However, recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), along with novel biosensors that could provide a real-time comprehensive condition of the patient, offer a new perspective in DM1 management. In this sense, new disruptive technologies like Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Cloud Computing, as well as Machine Learning (ML) can play an important role in managing DM1. In this work, firstly, an analysis of previously published ICT-based methods for the management of diabetes continuous monitoring is carried out. In this way, an assessment of the possible lack of such proposals is presented, along with the challenges to be overcome in forthcoming smart DM1 management systems. Finally, an overview of a holistic ICT-based platform for DM1 management that try to solve the limitations of previous works, while at the same time, taking advantage of the abovementioned disruptive technologies is hereby proposed.