Internet of Things Based on Electronic and Mobile Health Systems for Blood Glucose Continuous Monitoring and Management

Abstract

Over 425 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide and this number is expected to increase over the years. Rigorous and extensive research has led to the development of increasingly advanced technologies, such as continuous glucose monitoring and glucose flash monitoring. These new technologies are more promising and efficient with respect to calculating the glycemic index and are more easier to use than the glucometer technology already established in the market. However, market solutions are often highly restrictive due to their costs. In an effort to address this challenge, this article describes the Freestyle Free sensor and the associated advantages of an integrated and low-cost environment that it offers patients. The proposed environment allows continuously monitoring the blood glucose rate and provides doctors and caregivers information remotely. Additionally, the data generated will allow the application of data mining techniques in efforts aimed at understanding the disease better. The integration between the patient and the integrated environment occurs through the near-field communication sensor over an Internet of Things card, which sends the data collected for the LibreMonitor mobile application. To evaluate the integrated environment, we compared the glucose rates measured with an official Freestyle Libre software during the same period. Based on the positive results, we propose that the integrated environment is a low-cost alternative for continuous glucose monitoring of patients with diabetes.