The aim of our project is to design a portable, reliable low cost interface that is easy to use, and meets the needs of the imaginary clients that were provided by the competition.

In order to do this, we have listed the problems that our clients may face when using a general blood glucose monitor and came up with solutions to over come these difficulties.

To tackle this problem, we designed a blood glucose monitor system that is composed of a voice box that works with an existing blood glucose monitor and also a finger placing guide. We believe that this design will satisfy most of our clients needs.

National Student Design Competition: Accessible National Student Design Competition: Accessible Blood Glucose MonitorBlood Glucose Monitor

Nor Haslin Mohd AliNor Haslin Mohd Ali11 , Yazmin Zakaria , Yazmin Zakaria11,, Mus’ab ShaharomMus’ab Shaharom22

11Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, 22Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TNNashville TN

Even though our blood glucose monitor system is not completed, our blood glucose monitor system is still able to communicate with clients that has visual impairment. Our system has a beeper that tells the result of test. Our system also has a finger placing guide that helps clients with hand tremors and also limited usage of one arm. Other than that, the blood glucose monitor uses a 17 pre-load test drum system that eliminates the need for individual insertion of test strips. The system is portable and easy to use. The cost for our design is only $205. Even with selling price of $250 our system is still much cheaper than existing product that can talk.

There are various limitations with our monitor. At completion, the voice box for our monitor and the blood glucose monitor are two different systems. Because of this, the whole system would be quite bulky and also different power source would be needed for each system. Our recommendation for this would be to integrate both the voice box and blood glucose monitor together.

Other recommendations are to include a vial scanner into our system. This vial scanner would be able to read the label on the different insulin vials.

Our units of the results given by our monitor is given in mmol/L. The standard units in the United States is mg/dL. This is one of the limitation of our blood glucose monitoring system

1. The glucose measurement signal is obtained from the Accu Chek Compact Plus

2. The signal is converted into a readable signal by microprocessor

3. Readable signal is then conveyed to a speaker via a speech chip

4. A finger placing is build

BACKGROUNDBACKGROUND

METHODSMETHODS

Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose resulting in defects in insulin production, insulin action or both. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life.

Diabetes is usually associated with several complications. One of the more common complication that is associated with diabetes is diabetic retinopathy. This happens when the arteries become weakened and leak causing swelling in the eye that leads to impaired vision. A more advanced stage of this will lead to blindness. People with diabetes also may suffer from nervous system damage. This may include impaired sensation or pain in the feet or hands, carpal tunnel syndrome and other nerve problems.

20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population have diabetes. Of that, diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year making diabetes the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 20-74 years of age. Other than that, about 60% to 70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage

People with diabetes need to test their blood glucose three to four times a day to keep their glucose level in check. The design and creation of an accessible blood glucose monitor will help lessen the difficulties and pettiness of daily testing.

The National Student Design Competition is sponsored by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Medical Instrumentation.

In the competition, there are three choices of target design areas that were proposed. We have chosen to participate in designing the accessible blood glucose monitor.

The problem that arises is that people who have diabetes need to measure their blood glucose levels manually and several times a day. Diabetes can cause disabilities, especially visual impairments which can make using these meters a very difficult process. Existing products are not designed for optimal ease of use especially for people with disabilities.

The competition includes imaginary clients that suffer from visual loss, limited use of right arm and hand tremors due to Parkinson’s disease. The competition requires us to design an accessible blood glucose monitor that meets the needs of all the clients above.

The competition provides a $2000 budget for each participant and a $1000 cash prize for first place.

PROJECT GOALPROJECT GOAL

MATERIALSMATERIALS1) Accu Chek Compact Plus

We have chosen to use the Accu Chek Compact Plus as the main component of our device because it has certain qualities that satisfies our goal.

- Preload test strip drum - The 17 test strip drum eliminates the need to insert individual test strips into the monitor. This helps our clients with visual impairment, Parkinson disease and has limited use of one arm.

- Beeper – Beeps according to measurement.

2) Adapt9S12DP256 – microprocessor

3) Tigerbotics Speakjet Board – speech chip

4) Speaker

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

RECOMMENDATIONRECOMMENDATION

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Clients Problems Difficulties Solutions

Visual impairment Reading the output measurement of the monitor.Placing test strip into monitor.Placing blood on test strip.

Audio outputFinger placing guide

Parkinson's disease (tremors)

Placing test strip into monitor.Placing blood on test strip.

Finger placing guide

Limited use of right arm

Placing test strip into monitor.Placing blood on test strip.

Finger placing guide

Voice Box

A B

EDC

Above diagram shows the design of our blood glucose monitoring system. This system consists of the Accu Chek Compact Plus (A), a voice box, and a finger placing guide (B).

The Accu Chek Compact Plus (A) has a 17 pre-loaded test strip drum that eliminates the need of individual test strip insertion. This helps our clients that are visually impaired, has limited use of right arm and also our clients that have hand tremors due to Parkinson’s disease.

The voice box gives an audio output of the blood glucose measurement. This helps the clients that have decrease vision or suffer from blindness. The components of the voice box are the microprocessor which is the Adapt9s12DP256 (C), the speech chip which is the Tigerbotics Speakjet Board (D), and a speaker (E).

The finger-placing-guide help guides the finger of our clients that suffer from Parkinson’s disease and experience hand tremors. Other than that, the finger-placing-guide also helps our clients that are visually impaired and our clients that have limited use of one arm. The finger-placing-guide can be separated from the Accu Chek Compact Plus for cleaning.

This system is easy to use, portable, and meets the needs of our clients.

BUDGETBUDGETAccu Chek Compact Plus = $15 Adapt9s12DP256 Microcontroller + Board = $110Tigerbotics Speakjet Board Speech chip + Board = $60Speaker = $20Finger-placing-guide = $2Total = $207

Professor Baudenbacher, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Professor Paul King, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Professor John Enderle, Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut