Mobile health platform for diabetes management based on the Internet-of-Things

This paper presents a new Internet of Thing (IoT)-based platform to support self-management of diabetes. This mobile health (mHealth) approach allows for multiple care dimensions of diabetes by means of remote collection and monitoring of patient data and provision of personalized and customized feedback on a smartphone platform. Such support to self-management of diabetes enables real-time clinical interaction and feedback tailored to the personal needs of the patient, utilizing current and historical patient data. The platform understands to what extent the patient´s activities comply with their individual treatment plans, deriving rule-based health indicators, and generating appropriate warnings and support in terms of feedback advices. The physical layer of the platform incorporates wireless nodes; each of which encompasses a set of medical sensors linked wirelessly to a mobile device. The physical layer nodes are linked to a Web-based application layer through an existing telecommunication infrastructure. A fully functional prototype system is designed, implemented, and its end-to-end functionality is tested successfully, with high patient acceptability levels demonstrated by means of a clinician-led pilot study.