Simulating and predicting blood glucose levels for improved diabetes healthcare

Expert management of blood glucose levels (BGLs) can be difficult to achieve for many people with diabetes, since BGLs are affected in a very complex and non-linear manner by carbohydrate intake (diet), medication (tablets or insulin) and exercise. This paper discusses some of the expert management diabetes software systems that have been developed in the last decade which can accommodate the day- to-day complexities of BGL control, through a BGL prediction / therapy optimization strategy. In particular, the popular AIDA educational diabetes simulator is reviewed, together with a novel BGL simulation system based on artificial neural networks.