Researchers at Swansea University are developing a new text message scheme where SMS alerts are sent to emergency personnel when a patient faces a hypoglycaemia attack. The device, a new type of blood glucose monitor, has been developed to send readings to mobile phones used by NHS staff.
The Centre for Nanohealth and e-Health Industries Innovation Centre at Swansea University, and supported by the Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme, hope to produce a cheap system that continuously monitors patients through sensors and mobile networks.
It operates from a nanowire biosensor, rather than the usual fingerstick method which diabetic patients have to use up to 10 times each day. As well as sending readings to NHS clinical teams, it can send an emergency alert to next of kin if someone is undergoing a hypo.
Project leader, Vincent Teng, commented "Diabetic patients with low blood glucose can become unconscious due to hypoglycaemia and there are many reported incidents where patients, who either live or work alone, fainted without the notice of others and such occurrence can often be fatal."
He added "Therefore, a multi-functional monitoring system is important to manage the glucose level of diabetic patients and to provide a warning when the patient is unconscious."
It is hoped that a prototype of the device will become available in the next three years, and could be adapted to monitor other diseases.
New diabetes text alerts being developed
Wed, 31 Aug 2011
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