Design of a Personal Health Monitor Interface for Wireless, IP-based, Data Logging

Collaborating with the Enterprise Research Centre at the University of Limerick (UL) in Ireland, we designed, developed, and implemented a proof-of-concept glucose meter adapter that allows blood glucose level readings to be securely transmitted to a remote database via existing WiFi technology. By using open source software and embedded components, we have created a highly flexible platform that allows healthcare professionals to monitor patients in near real-time. Our device aims to simplify the lifestyle of diabetics while providing new opportunities for statistical research and analysis of diabetes

The use of evaluation in the design and development of interactive medical record systems

An explorative study was done to develop an evaluation methodology. This method can be applied during the development of interactive medical record systems in order to provide information which can be used to improve user interaction with the system. Th e evaluation methodology consists of a number of interactive sessions with potential users of the interactive medical record system. During the first two sessions the subjects are trained to use the system. During the third and last session the subjects are videotaped while they are doing a set of benchmark tasks on the system under evaluation. The video recordings are analysed to obtain performance data. This performance data consists of task timings and a list of problems experienced (errors made) by the subjects. The systems evaluated during the study were a problem-oriented manual medical record and an interactive computerized medical record. The computerized record system was specifically developed for this study. The design and subsequent improvements to this system are documented in the study

Development and evaluation of an intelligent handheld insulin dose advisor for patients with Type-1 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is an increasingly common, chronic, incurable disease requiring careful monitoring and treatment so as to minimise the risk of serious long-term complications. It has been suggested that computers used by healthcare professionals and/or patients themselves may playa useful role in the diabetes care process. Seven key systems (AIDA, ADICOL, DIABETES, DIAS, IIumaLink, T-IDDM, POIRO) in the area of diabetes decision support, and their underlying techniques and approaches are summarised and compared. The development of the Patient-Oriented Insulin Regimen Optimiser (POIRO) for insulindependent (Type-I) diabetes, and its hybrid statistical and rule-based expert system is then taken forward. The re-implementation and updating of the system for the Palm OS family of modern Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) is described. The evaluation of this new version in a seven week, randomised, open, cross-over clinical pilot study involving eight patients on short-acting plus long-acting insulin basalbolus regimens showed it to be easy-to-operate, reliable, not time consuming and well liked by patients. Following this, the characteristics and use of all currently available insulin formulations, and the corresponding insulin regimens are summarised. Algorithms to provide dose advice and decision support for patients taking the new rapid-acting, intermediate-acting and premixed insulin formulations are then developed. The user interface is improved and extended, amongst others through the development and use of a model describing individual user's meal time habits. Implementation-related issues encountered are discussed, and further work and future directions are identified and outlined. Motivated by the complex and safety-critical nature of systems such as POIRO, we also report on the use of the B abstract machine notation for the formal specification of the original POIRO system, and focusing on projects and published case studies. review the use of formal methods in the development of medical computer systems

Modeling Faceted Browsing with Category Theory for Reuse and Interoperability

Faceted browsing (also called faceted search or faceted navigation) is an exploratory search model where facets assist in the interactive navigation of search results. Facets are attributes that have been assigned to describe resources being explored; a faceted taxonomy is a collection of facets provided by the interface and is often organized as sets, hierarchies, or graphs. Faceted browsing has become ubiquitous with modern digital libraries and online search engines, yet the process is still difficult to abstractly model in a manner that supports the development of interoperable and reusable interfaces. We propose category theory as a theoretical foundation for faceted browsing and demonstrate how the interactive process can be mathematically abstracted in order to support the development of reusable and interoperable faceted systems. Existing efforts in facet modeling are based upon set theory, formal concept analysis, and light-weight ontologies, but in many regards they are implementations of faceted browsing rather than a specification of the basic, underlying structures and interactions. We will demonstrate that category theory allows us to specify faceted objects and study the relationships and interactions within a faceted browsing system. Resulting implementations can then be constructed through a category-theoretic lens using these models, allowing abstract comparison and communication that naturally support interoperability and reuse. In this context, reuse and interoperability are at two levels: between discrete systems and within a single system. Our model works at both levels by leveraging category theory as a common language for representation and computation. We will establish facets and faceted taxonomies as categories and will demonstrate how the computational elements of category theory, including products, merges, pushouts, and pullbacks, extend the usefulness of our model. More specifically, we demonstrate that categorical constructions such as the pullback and pushout operations can help organize and reorganize facets; these operations in particular can produce faceted views containing relationships not found in the original source taxonomy. We show how our category-theoretic model of facets relates to database schemas and discuss how this relationship assists in implementing the abstractions presented. We give examples of interactive interfaces from the biomedical domain to help illustrate how our abstractions relate to real-world requirements while enabling systematic reuse and interoperability. We introduce DELVE (Document ExpLoration and Visualization Engine), our framework for developing interactive visualizations as modular Web-applications in order to assist researchers with exploratory literature search. We show how facets relate to and control visualizations; we give three examples of text visualizations that either contain or interact with facets. We show how each of these visualizations can be represented with our model and demonstrate how our model directly informs implementation. With our general framework for communicating consistently about facets at a high level of abstraction, we enable the construction of interoperable interfaces and enable the intelligent reuse of both existing and future efforts

Chatbot assistant for diabetic patients

Dissertação de mestrado em Informatics EngineeringNowadays, with the existence of several chronic health conditions, Diabetes Mellitus (DM) being one of the main ones, there is a great burden that patients must have in order to be able to take care of themselves. Thus, in addition to seeking to resolve their needs by obtaining information from health professionals, they increasingly seek information and advices in forums, communities and groups. The use of dialogue systems has become essential in people’s lives. The development of conversational agents is still an unresolved research problem that poses many challenges in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community. This work aims to build an AI chatbot that is based on the principles and techniques of AI directed to Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning to help people newly diagnosed with DM in the self management of the disease. A literature search of DM education and information for people newly diagnosed with DM was con ducted. Additionally, the main topics in which patients ask for support were retrieved from a search of several online support groups of DM, as well as questionnaires with 8 patients and interviews with 3 health professionals. The application were developed through the back-end side in Python and the front-end side in React Native and its communication was made through WebSockets. Furthermore, an interaction and interface design are developed in this work using Human-Centered Design (HCD) methodology. For that purpose, iterative usability test sessions were conducted with 12 users using Think Aloud methods and the System Usability Scale (SUS). The chatbot developed is Information Retrieval (IR) type and answered questions asked by users in a human-like way. The result of the usability tests of the final version of the application was satisfactory (with a System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 88) and users found the application quite intuitive and robust. Further studies should concentrate on customizing the chatbot to each user by collecting information from prior interactions and verifying the impact of using this chatbot for newly diagnosed Portuguese users with DM.Atualmente, com a existência de várias condições crónicas de saúde sendo uma das principais a Diabetes Mellitus (DM), há um grande fardo que os pacientes devem ter para poderem cuidar de si mesmos. Assim, para além dos pacientes buscarem procurar resolver as suas necessidades por meio da obtenção de informações junto aos profissionais de saúde, cada vez mais buscam informações e conselhos em fóruns, comunidades e grupos. O uso de sistemas de diálogo tornou-se essencial na vida das pessoas. O desenvolvimento de agentes conversacionais é ainda um problema de pesquisa não resolvido que apresenta muitos desafios na comunidade da Inteligência Artificial (IA). Este trabalho visa construir um IA chatbot que é baseado nos princípios e técnicas de Inteligência Artificial (IA) direcionado a Processamento de Linguagem Natural (PLN) e Aprendizagem Profunda para ajudar pessoas recém-diagnosticadas com DM no autocuidado desta doença. Neste trabalho, foi acompanhada uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre a educação e informações da DM para pessoas recém-diagnosticadas com DM. Além disso, foram abordados em vários grupos de apoio online relacionados com a DM os principais tópicos que os pacientes pedem apoio, a utilização de um questionário com 8 pacientes e entrevistas com 3 profissionais de saúde. A aplicação foi desenvolvida através do back-end em Python e front-end em React Native e a sua comunicação foi feita através de WebSockets. Foi também desenvolvido um design de interação e interface através da metodologia Human-Centered Design (HCD). Para tal, foram realizadas sessões de testes iterativos de usabilidade com 12 participantes seguindo os métodos Think Aloud e System Usability Scale (SUS). O chatbot desenvolvido é do tipo Information Retrieval (IR) e responde às perguntas feitas pelos utilizadores de forma humana. O resultado dos testes de usabilidade da versão final da aplicação foram satisfatórios (SUS de 88) e os utilizadores acharam a aplicação bastante intuitiva e robusta. Os estudos futuros devem concentrar-se na personalização do chatbot para cada utilizador, com a coleção de informações e de interações anteriores e na verificação do impacto da utilização deste chatbot para utilizadores portugueses recém-diagnosticados com DM

Information Systems and Health Care-VI: Medical Nomograms with Decision Support Systems: A Case Study and an Enhanced Architecture

Nomograms are used extensively in medical practice as decision aids to adjust treatment protocols based on knowledge gained from previous outcomes. In this paper, we describe a case study of a surgical nomogram system that was developed for estimating laser settings in refractive eye surgery. This system was developed in Microsoft Access with add-ins from Total Access Statistics. It is being used in one of the authors\u27 surgical practice. Based on experiences with the system, we present an enhanced architecture for a nomogram server that can be used in other areas of medicine

State-of-the-art and User Requirements of Blood Glucose Measurement: Devices, Software and Services.

Diabetes on jatkuvasti yleistyvä sairaus, joka vaatii yleisesti säännölliset verensokerin omamittaukset. Tämä Diplomityö tutkii verensokerimittauksen nykytilaa ja käyttäjätarpeita.. Erityisesti työ keskittyy verensokerimittareihin, verensokerimittauksen apuohjelmiin, sekä diabeteksen hoitosuosituksiin ja -käytäntöihin. Diplomityössä käsittellään lisäksi laadukkaan verensokerimittauksen määrittelyä Nykytilan analyysi perustuu valtaosin kirjallisuustutkimuksiin. Käyttäjätarpeiden kartoitus perustuu puolistrukturoituihin haastatteluihin. Haastatteluaineisto pohjautuu 8:aan haastatteluun, jossa haastateltiin kolmen eri käyttäjäryhmä edustajia: lääkäreitä, hoitajia ja diabeetikoita. Näiden käyttäjäryhmien käyttäjätarpeet ovat hyvin yhteneviä. Nykyiset verensokerimittauksen laitteet ja palvelut vastaavat hyvälaatuisen verensokerihallinnan vähimmäisvaatimuksiin. Nykyiset laitteet ja palvelut eivät vastaa Diplomityön esittelemiä vaativampia käyttäjätarpeita. Laitteiden ja palveluiden tulisi ola nykyistä kokonaisvaltaisempia ja integroituneita. Yksi verensokerimittauksen suurimmista haasteista on potilaan motivaatio mittausten laadukkaaseen läpivientiin. Potilaan motivaatioon vaikuttavien tekijöiden selvittäminen on yksi mielenkiintoinen jatkotutkimuksen aihe.Diabetes is an increasingly common illness that often requires regular measurement of Blood Glucose (BG). This Thesis discusses the state-of-the-art and user requirements of BG measurement, focusing on: BG meters, diabetes management software, and diabetes treatment guidelines and practices. Additionally, BG measurement quality definitions are discussed. The discussion on the state-of-the-art presented is primarily based on literature research. The requirements study is based on the results of a semi-structured interview of 8 subjects. The requirements of three user groups are discussed, i.e. doctors, nurses and diabetics. The requirements of the user groups are significantly similar. The current supply of BG measuring devices and services provides the bare minimum required for good quality BG measurement. The more advanced requirements elicited in this Thesis are mostly not met. The BG measuring devices and services are thus required to be more comprehensive and integrated. One of the key issues with BG measurement is motivating the diabetics to perform good quality measurements. Interesting topics for further research include the factors affecting patients’ motivation