A PhD project conducted at the University of Tromsø (Troms county, Norway) and the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine (NST) has resulted in the development of a new self-help system that allows patients suffering from diabetes to monitor their health conditions.

The system consists of a mobile telephone, a blood glucose meter and a step counter. The principle that actually inspired the development of the system is based on the fact that nowadays, individuals carry a mobile phone with them almost wherever they are. In addition, telephones are becoming more like computers that people can use to make phone calls.

The researcher, Dr. Eirik Ã…rsand describes the way the system works: "The blood glucose meter transmits the blood values wirelessly to the telephone, and so does the step counter that we developed two years ago. Dietary information is also easy for the user to enter. And the tool functions as a practical aid in everyday life." All the values are collected and stored in the phone, so that the patient can keep track of the trend in their blood glucose, be informed about how physically active they have been, and how successful they have been in maintaining healthy eating habits.

This feedback enables the patient to monitor and change both their diet and their activity level on the basis of their blood sugar values. The best-case scenario of the use of this system is a stable and healthy blood glucose level, which in turn reduces the risk of complications resulting from the illness.

"We would never have succeeded in this without dedicated users", states Dr. Ã…rsand. Together with the other researchers and the system developers in the diabetes team at the NST, Ã…rsand has been working for the past four years in order to develop this system in the framework of his PhD project. "It would not been possible to develop this tool without involving people with diabetes over a period as long as two years", states Dr. Ã…rsand and adds that as far as he is aware of, there are no other equivalent projects that have included users to the extent that this project has.

The trials of the system that the users have helped to develop actually lasted half a year, but all the users were so pleased with it that they are still using the system nearly one and a half years after they received the equipment.

Testing so far has involved 12 users, who expressed positive views on the ease of use of the equipment. Furthermore, several of the participants have changed their medication, physical activity and diet after starting to use the system. However, - according to the researchers - the number of the testers is not enough to draw any clear conclusions about the medical effect of using the tool. Nevertheless, the EU project 'Renewing Health' - which starts in February 2010 - will give 200 people the opportunity to use the system.

The system will provide a much better basis for finding out whether the 'Few Touch' application does in fact help to improve eating habits, physical activity and blood glucose values and, in turn, the health condition of its users.

The project was funded by the Committee for Telemedicine Research Programme at the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority and Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory (TTL).

Further information:

• Original News Article - Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine