Design and Development of an Internet of things Based Glucometer with Wireless Transmission

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the top non-communicable illnesses of public health importance.  6.4% of world population is reported to have diabetes mellitus with the figure, feared to double by 2040. Nigeria has estimated 1.6 million cases in 2015, which ranked her the third diabetes endemic country in Africa. Diabetes complication is a known leading cause of the disease high mortality rates and healthcare burden on developing economies. Daily monitoring of blood sugar levels, however, is an effective way to prevent diabetes complications. Glucometer is a simple device used for blood glucose monitoring. The aim of this study was to design and use locally sourced materials to fabricate a cheap digital glucometer that will be able to measure blood glucose levels and sends a distress signal to medics and caregivers via wireless transmission.The method employed includes programming, calibration, assembling, component testing, and the overall device test. The device is equipped with an Atmega32 microcontroller, One-Touch Ultra glucose sensor, a GSM module, emergency button, and internet of things (IoT). Our device and a conventional device (Accuchek) were used to measure the blood sugar level of 200 individuals in groups of 5, the data were analyzed using SPSS2.0 and Microsoft Excel 2010.The p-value was (>0.05) indicating no significant difference between the data generated by our device and the conventional glucometer, while the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.9838. From the results above, we conclude that our fabricatrd device is effective and reliable.