Patent Application
20100331650
The present disclosure relates generally to a blood glucose monitoring system, and in particular, an episodic blood glucose monitoring system with an interactive graphical user interfaces (GUI) and methods thereof.
Diabetes is a disease typically associated with high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production that causes sugar to build up in the body. According to the Centers of Disease Control, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2007 and can cause serious health complications including stroke and heart disease (e.g., diabetics have two to four time higher risk than those without diabetes), blindness (e.g., diabetes is the leading cause of blindness among adults 20-74 years old), kidney failure (e.g., diabetes is the leading cause) and lower-extremity amputations (e.g., 60% of nontraumatic amputations are performed on diabetics). As of June, 2008, nearly 24 million Americans (or nearly 8% of the population) were affected by diabetes. In 2007, the total direct and indirect cost of treating diabetes in the U.S. was approximately $174 billion.
Keeping blood glucose levels on target can prevent or delay the problems associated with diabetes. For example, general targets for diabetics can be to have blood glucose levels ranging between 80-140 mg/dL before meals and to have blood glucose levels of less than 180 mg/dL after meals. Studies in the United States and abroad have found improved glycemic control benefits people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. In general, every percentage point drop in A1c (the average amount of glucose in the blood during the past 2 to 3 months) blood test results can lower the risk of microvascular complications by 40%. Further, in people with type 1 diabetes, intensive insulin therapy has long-term beneficial effects in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Typically, blood glucose levels can be checked using a blood glucose meter and a lancet. The lancet can be used to get a drop of blood from the diabetic patient which can be placed on a disposable strip. The strip is then inserted into the blood glucose meter to be read. The meter then can display the blood glucose level to the user, or patient, on a display screen. In general, the patient tests his/her blood glucose level before and after each meal and before bedtime. Patients also, typically, keeps a journal or log to keep track of their blood glucose levels. The date and time that the blood glucose level is measured is a typical entry into the journal. Notes are also made in the journal of things that may change the blood glucose levels, such as the size of the meal and energy level. Patient may graph their blood glucose levels to identify trends in blood glucose levels. The journal can be made available to a doctor or a health care team for analysis in order to recommend possible changes in diet, physical activity, or medicines to better control the patient's diabetes. However, in order for the journal to be beneficial, patients must remember to test blood glucose levels at the correct times as well as to accurately maintain the journal, in order for the patient and the patient's health care team to best control the patient's diabetes.
Therefore, there is a need for a blood glucose monitoring system with an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a patient to enter a blood glucose testing protocol, that alerts the patient of an upcoming blood glucose testing time, that allows the patient to enter testing conditions, that automatically maintains statistics and trends regarding the patient's blood glucose levels and that displays episodic blood glucose levels as well as blood glucose level statistics on the GUI in response to patient prompts.
According to the present disclosure, a graphical user interface (GUI) for an episodic blood glucose monitoring system and methods of controlling the system and performing episodic blood glucose testing via the GUI are presented. The episodic blood glucose monitoring system can comprise the GUI, an output display for displaying the GUI and GUI icons associated with episodic blood glucose monitoring, user interfaces for accepting user input regarding testing protocol parameters, a memory for storing user input parameters and blood glucose testing results, and a processor that is in communication with the output device, the user interfaces and the memory. The processor can maintain the testing parameters inputted by the user and can calculate statistics related to the saved episodic blood glucose testing results. The GUI can display the GUI icons on the output display in accordance to the user inputted testing parameters and displays the statistical blood glucose testing results on the output display in response to a user prompt.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a blood glucose monitoring system with an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a patient to enter a blood glucose testing protocol, that automatically alerts the patient to an upcoming testing time, that allows the patient to enter testing conditions, that automatically maintains statistics and trends regarding the patient's blood glucose levels and that displays episodic blood glucose levels on the GUI in response to user prompts.
In one particular embodiment, an episodic blood glucose testing method is disclosed. The method comprises providing an episodic blood glucose monitoring system having a processor, memory, user interfaces, and an output display supporting a graphical user interface (GUI) which facilitates an episodic blood glucose testing mode; using the user interfaces and the GUI to enter the episodic blood glucose testing mode and to program the processor to execute an episodic blood glucose testing protocol comprised of a plurality of testing alert times; saving into memory the episodic blood glucose testing protocol; responding to a testing alert provided by the processor by inserting a test strip into the system, the testing alert corresponding to one of the testing alert times of the blood glucose testing protocol; conducting a blood glucose test using the inserted test strip; reviewing displayed blood glucose testing results provided along with a range indicator icon on the GUI; saving the blood glucose testing results into the memory; and prompting the processor to display calculated statistics of saved blood glucose testing results on the GUI.
In another embodiment, an episodic blood glucose monitoring system which uses a disposable test strip to determine a blood glucose level of a blood sample is disclosed. The system comprises a test strip reader; an output display which displays a graphical user interface (GUI) that has icons associated with an episodic blood glucose testing mode; user interfaces for accepting user input regarding the episodic blood glucose testing mode and an episodic blood glucose testing protocol comprised of a plurality of testing alert times for user specific episodic blood glucose testing; a memory which stores the episodic blood glucose testing protocol and any blood glucose testing results; a processor in communication with the test strip reader, output display, the user interfaces and the memory; and a computer program contained in memory having instructions which cause the processor to prompt on the output display for user input regarding setting times of each of the plurality of testing alert times, to display the icons associated with the episodic blood glucose testing mode on the output display in accordance to the user input accepted by the user interfaces, to provide a testing alert corresponding to one of the testing alert times of the blood glucose testing protocol, to conduct a blood glucose test upon insertion of the disposable test strip into the test strip reader, to display on the output display blood glucose testing results along with a range indicator icon, to save the blood glucose testing results into the memory, and to display on the output display calculated statistics of saved blood glucose testing results in response to additional user input accepted by the user interfaces.
In another embodiment, a method for controlling an episodic blood glucose monitoring system is disclosed. The method comprises allowing a user to toggle on the episodic blood glucose monitoring system between an episodic blood glucose testing mode in which an episodic blood glucose testing protocol, which prompts blood glucose testing and recording of meal information at user specified times, is automatically followed by the episodic blood glucose monitoring system and a normal blood glucose meter operations mode in which only a blood glucose testing results is displayed on an output display of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system after conducting a blood glucose test using a disposable test strip with the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; and displaying a graphical user interface that has icons associated with the episodic blood glucose testing mode on the output display of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system, wherein the icons comprises a pre-meal testing icon, a post-meal testing icon, and pre-bedtime testing icon.
In still another embodiment, an episodic blood glucose testing method is disclosed. The method comprises providing an episodic blood glucose monitoring system having a processor, memory, user interfaces, and an output display supporting a graphical user interface (GUI) which facilitates an episodic blood glucose testing mode; programming an episodic blood glucose testing protocol into the processor utilizing the user interfaces if the episodic blood glucose monitoring system is in the episodic testing mode; automatically saving the episodic blood glucose testing protocol into memory; alerting the user to test pre-meal blood glucose based on the inputted testing protocol by displaying a pre-meal alert icon on the GUI; inserting a blood glucose test strip containing a blood sample from a patient into the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; measuring a blood glucose level of the blood sample; displaying the blood glucose level measurement along with a blood glucose range indicator icon on the GUI; automatically saving the blood glucose level measurement into the memory; alerting the user to test post-meal blood glucose based on the inputted testing protocol by displaying a post-meal alert icon on the GUI after an elapse of a predetermined time after the pre-meal blood glucose measurement is saved; inserting a blood glucose test strip containing a blood sample from a patient into the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; measuring a blood glucose level of the blood sample; displaying the blood glucose level measurement along with a blood glucose range indicator icon on the GUI; automatically saving the blood glucose level measurement into the memory; inputting meal size after displaying blood glucose level measurement; automatically saving the meal size into the memory; alerting the user to test pre-bedtime blood glucose based on the inputted testing protocol by displaying a pre-bedtime alert icon on the GUI; inserting a blood glucose test strip containing a blood sample from a patient into the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; measuring a blood glucose level of the blood sample; displaying the blood glucose level measurement along with a blood glucose range indicator icon on the GUI; automatically saving the blood glucose level measurement into the memory; calculating statistics of saved blood glucose level measurements; retrieving statistics for display on the GUI when prompted by the user; and scrolling through the saved blood glucose measurements and calculated statistics using the user interfaces.
In another embodiment, an episodic blood glucose monitoring system with a graphical user interface (GUI) is disclosed. The system comprising: a power button to power the episodic blood glucose monitoring system on and off; a testing mode button to select for an episodic testing mode of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; an output display for displaying the GUI; a left arrow button and a right arrow button to program an episodic blood glucose testing protocol into a processor if the episodic blood glucose monitoring system is in episodic testing mode; an alert icon displayed on the GUI to alert the user to test blood glucose based on the inputted testing protocol; a blood glucose test strip containing a blood sample from a patient to be inserted into the episodic blood glucose monitoring system for measuring a blood glucose level of the blood sample; a blood glucose range indicator icon to be displayed on the GUI along with a blood glucose level measurement; a meal size icon to prompt for meal size to be displayed on the GUI after displaying blood glucose level measurement for a post-meal testing; a memory to automatically save the episodic blood glucose testing protocol, blood glucose level measurements and meal size; and a processor to calculate statistics of saved blood glucose level measurements and to run other algorithms associated with the episodic blood glucose monitoring system.
In one specific embodiment, a graphical user interface (GUI) for an episodic blood glucose monitoring system is disclosed. The GUI comprises an episodic blood glucose testing mode icon associated with an episodic blood glucose testing mode of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system; an alert icon associated with a user specified testing time provided in an episodic blood glucose testing protocol followed by the episodic blood glucose monitoring system in the episodic blood glucose testing mode; an testing icon associated with one of a pre-meal testing, post-meal testing, and pre-bedtime testing; and an range indication icon associated with one of an acceptable blood glucose level range, a below acceptable blood glucose level range, and an above acceptable blood glucose level range.
Other features of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent in light of the description of the disclosure embodied herein.
The following detailed description of specific embodiments of the present disclosure can be best understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numerals and in which:
In the following detailed description of the embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration, and not by way of limitation, specific embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical and electrical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
Referring initially to
A ROM key port 145 may be provided in an embodiment of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 where calibration data for a lot of disposable test strips used with the system is provided on a ROM chip. It is to be appreciated in other embodiments, calibration data may be keyed into the system 100 via some combination of the user interfaces 105, 110, 115, 120, or received from an external device via either the port 135 or device 140.
In one exemplary embodiment, the user interfaces 105, 110, 115, 120 can comprise a power button 105, an episodic testing mode button 110, a left arrow button 115, and a right arrow button 120. The power button 105 when pressed can power the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 on or off. The episodic testing mode button 110 can be pressed by a user to toggle the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 between a normal blood glucose meter operations mode and an episodic blood glucose testing mode. It is to be appreciated that the system 100 in the normal blood glucose meter operations mode, functions to read a disposable test strip inserted into the strip port 130, to calculate the blood glucose level of a drop of blood placed on the test strip, and to display the level in mg/dl or mmol/l of the output display 125, as in a manner to mimic conventional blood glucose meters. Such a mode is useful in situations when a quick blood glucose reading is desired or when episodic blood glucose testing is not presently desired. Programming facilitating and scenarios illustrating the episodic blood glucose testing provided by system 100 is discussed hereafter in later sections. It is also to be appreciated that the method used to determine a patient's blood glucose level may be any known in the art such as, for example, measuring the amount of electricity that passes through the blood sample or measuring the amount of light reflects from the blood sample after the blood glucose reacts with the enzymes resident on the test strip. As such measurement methods are known to those skilled in the art, no further discussion regarding the same is provided herein.
By episodic blood glucose testing it is meant that an episodic blood glucose testing protocol, which prompts blood glucose testing and recording of meal information at user specified times, is followed automatically by the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100.
Regarding the left and right arrow buttons 115,120, either or both can be pressed by the user to navigate various screens of the output display 125 and to select display features and/or functions. Although the term “button” is used when discussing the user interfaces 115, 120 which allow the user to manipulate the system 100, any suitable type of input device known in the art can be used such as, for example, and not to be limited thereto, sliders, knobs, switches, styli, trackballs, trackpoints, touch pads, and/or similar touchscreen features provided by the output display 125. By touchscreen, it is meant that the display 125 can detect the presence and location of a touch (finger or stylus) within the display area.
The output display 125 can be, for example, a display screen for displaying episodic blood glucose testing results and related graphical user interface (GUI) icons, symbols and/or indicia. The display screen 125 can be, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a light emitting polymer (LEP) display, an organic electro luminescence (OEL) display, an electronic paper (E-paper) display, an interferometric modulator display (IMOD), or any suitable type of display known in the art. As mentioned above, the output display 125 may in one embodiment by a touchscreen which detects the presence and location of a touch (finger or stylus) within the display area. In such an embodiment, the left and right arrow buttons 115, 120 may not be provided as the output display 125 as a touchscreen would provide similar functionality. The various screens and displayable features i.e., GUI icons, symbols and/or indicia and functions of the output display 125 are discussed in greater details in later sections.
Turning now to
Turning to
In one exemplary embodiment, the user can begin the episodic testing protocol set-up by long pressing the testing mode button 110 in
As shown by
Although not shown, in one embodiment, a series of alert dates (day/moth/year) can be also set by pressing the left and right arrow buttons 115, 120 to indicate a number of days over which the pre-breakfast alert will alarm. In such an embodiment, a default setting may be provided in which the pre-breakfast alert is provided daily unless a series has been entered. For example, in one embodiment, once a desired start date (day, month, year) is entered, the power button 105 can be pressed to save the start date into memory. The left and right arrow buttons 115, 120 can then be pressed to move the date to set a desired end date for the pre-breakfast alert. Once the desired date is reached, the power button 105 can be pressed to save the end date into memory. A similar testing series feature may also be provided to the other alert settings of the system 100 discussed hereafter in one embodiment, or in another embodiment may be a global setting for all alerts.
After setting up the pre-breakfast alert, pressing the testing mode button 110 advances the GUI 175 from the pre-breakfast setting, i.e. the A-1 icon 225, to a pre-lunch setting, which is represented by a A-2 icon 245 shown in
After the alert time 235 for the pre-lunch alert has been set and saved in memory, pressing the testing mode button 110 advances the GUI 175 to a pre-dinner setting, represented by the A-3 icon 250, as shown in
Pressing the testing mode button 110 one more time advances the GUI to an “OK” icon 265 shown in
Once the blood glucose level of the blood sample 422 has been determined and saved into memory 150, the blood glucose level 430 can be displayed on the GUI 175 along with a range indicator icon 435 as illustrated in
At a pre-determined time after the programmed pre-meal time alert, the user can be prompted to test a post-meal glucose level. In one exemplary embodiment, the pre-determined time can be a time selected from the range of about 90 to about 200 minutes, and in another embodiment may be set to 120 minutes. One possible post-meal alert scenario is illustrated in
In
After the alert, the user inserts a test strip 410 into the strip port 130. The GUI 175 then displays the strip icon 415 along with the blood drop icon 420 prompting the user to apply a blood sample 422 to the test strip 410 in
After user removes the test strip 410 or presses any one of the user interfaces, a meal icon 520 can appear along with a user prompt 530 to enter a meal size as shown in
In one exemplary embodiment, the preset maximum delay can be approximately one hour. This delay of testing is referred to herein as a snooze function of the system 100. To turn off either the snooze function if in a delay period or the alert icon 220 and begin testing, the user can insert a test strip 410 to initiate the blood glucose testing as shown in
If the right arrow button 120 is pressed, the user can scroll forward through the episodic testing statistics calculated by the processor 155 from the blood glucose testing results stored in the memory 150. The first statistical GUI display shown in
After the screens showing the percentages of the total number of blood glucose testing results in each range, pressing the right arrow button 120 again can take the user to the next set of statistical screens for only the pre-meal tests which can be represented by displaying the apple icon 225. The first screen is illustrated in
After the set of statistical screens for only the pre-meal tests, pressing the right arrow button 120 again can take the user to the next set of statistical screens for only the post-meal tests which can be represented by displaying the apple core, or post-meal icon 510. The first screen is illustrated in
Finally, after the set of statistical screens for only the post-meal tests, pressing the right arrow button 120 again can take the user to the next set of statistical screens for only the pre-bedtime test represented by the bed icon 260. The first screen is illustrated in
It is to be appreciated that all the above disclosed processes and functions provided by the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 result from a computer program stored in memory, such as memory 150, that has instructions which when executed by the processor 165 create means for implementing all the processes and functions disclosed above in reference to
In another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to toggle, upon further user input accepted by the user interfaces 110, 115, 120, between the episodic blood glucose testing mode and a normal blood glucose meter operations mode of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system in which the processor 165 only displays the blood glucose testing results on the output display 125 after conducting the blood glucose test on the inserted disposable test strip. In another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to reset the testing alert for a set period of time upon further user input accepted by the user interfaces 110, 115, 120 and to re-alert the testing alert after elapse of the set period of time. In still another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to prompt on the output display 125 user input which designates each of the testing alert times as a pre-meal testing, a post-meal testing, or a pre-bedtime testing.
In still another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to prompt on the output display 125 user input concerning at least one of a meal size and a meal speed for the blood glucose test if the alert time was for a post-meal test. In yet still another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to calculate for the calculated statistics what percentage of blood glucose testing results fall within an acceptable blood glucose level range, below an acceptable blood glucose level range, and above an acceptable blood glucose level range.
In another embodiment, the computer program further comprises instructions which cause the processor 165 to calculate for the calculated statistics what percentage of blood glucose testing results fall within an acceptable blood glucose level range, below an acceptable blood glucose level range, and above an acceptable blood glucose level range for pre-meal blood glucose testing, for post-meal blood glucose testing, and for pre-bedtime testing. The computer program for implementing the present invention may be written in various object-oriented programming languages, such as Delphi and Java. RTM. However, it is understood that other object oriented programming languages, such as C++ and Smalltalk, as well as conventional programming languages, such as FORTRAN or COBOL, could be utilized without departing from the spirit and intent of the present invention.
Having the testing protocol and the blood glucose test results automatically saved into memory 150 of the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 can help increase user convenience since the user no longer needs to maintain a separate testing schedule and/or journal. Further, automatically saving the results may help reduce the number of errors that may result from having to keep a journal separate from the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100. The GUI 175 of the output display 125 can also provide the user with interpretative context for his or her own blood glucose data such as, for example, meal size, meal speed, and instant summaries of statistics regarding the blood glucose levels being within, above or under an acceptable range. Finally, having the contextualized data resident on the episodic blood glucose monitoring system 100 can help improve interaction with the user's doctor or health care professional to assist in improving therapy decisions, thereby leading to better patient outcomes.
Having described the disclosure in detail and by reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the disclosure defined in the appended claims. More specifically, although some aspects of the present disclosure are identified herein as preferred or particularly advantageous, it is contemplated that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to these preferred aspects of the disclosure.
