Diseño De Un Simulador E Interfaz Para Diabetes

Development of an Educational Simulator and Graphical User Interface for Diabetic Patients
M. Hern´ndez-Ordo˜ez1 , O. Monta˜o2 , D.U. Campos-Delgado3 and E. Palacios4 a n n
CIEP, Facultad de Ingenier´ UASLP, Av. Manuel Nava No. 8, C.P. 78290, SLP, M´xico ıa, e Universidad Polit´cnica de San Luis Potos´ Iturbide No. 140, C.P. 78000, SLP, M´xico. e ı, e 3,4 Facultad de Ciencias, UASLP, Av.Salvador Nava s/n, C.P. 78290, SLP, M´xico e 1 email: mar@uaslp.mx, 2 omarmr@upslp.edu.mx, 3 ducd@fciencias.uaslp.mx and 4 epalacios@fciencias.uaslp.mx
2 1

Abstract— This paper presents an educational simulator and graphical user interface for type 1 diabetes patients. The educational simulator is conformed by three mathematical models which describe the glucoseinsulin dynamics using acompartmental model, with additional equations to reproduce aerobic exercise, gastric glucose absorption by the gut, and subcutaneous insulin absorption. Moreover, multiple daily doses and continuous insulin infusions can be simulated in order to implement an intensive insulin therapy. The mathematical models, integration methods and insulin dosing strategies were implemented in Java programming language.As a result, the Java Educational Diabetes Management Advisor (JEDMA) shows the influence of exercise periods, food intakes, and intensive insulin therapies on the glucose concentrations.

Keywords: Diabetes, Glucose regulation, Educational Simulator, Graphical User Interface, Java. I. Introduction Diabetes is a disease characterized by a deficiency of the human body to regulate the blood glucoseconcentration. One of the most important concepts related to diabetes mellitus is patient education. For this reason, educational software has emerged as a powerful tool to improve the patient awareness about the consequences of not following the physician advise. Several graphical interfaces have been reported in the last two decades. In this context, some of these interfaces look to predict theglucose concentration to specific insulin doses programmed by the patient, and some others to give advise on specific insulin dosing patterns according to the glucose measurements. In 1989, the software DIAS (Diabetes Advisory System) was developed and stood out for its realistic results [1]. This program was tested with 20 controlled diabetic patients predicting suitable insulin doses. Theprogram was compared against the supervision of a specialized nurse, but on the overall, the software advise provided better guidance than the nurse. In 2001, GlucoSIM showed an advanced visual graphical user interface with respect to other programs [2]. The software runs into a web page which provides a technical description of its components. This program is designed for continuous insulin infusionstrategies: proportional-

integral-derivative (PID) control, internal model control (IMC), and model predictive control (MPC). GlucoSIM is written in C language and Matlab code, this gives evidence of the program’s ability to function in different operating systems. Moreover, the GlucoSIM authors mention that this program is capable of reproducing exercise periods, however these dynamics werenot documented in the web page or reference literature. Another important diabetes simulator is AIDA [3]. AIDA was initially developed as a 4th order compartmental model, which describes the blood glucose dynamic pattern. However, AIDA authors further on restated the AIDA philosophy. So, the mathematical model turned into an interactive educational diabetes simulator that is useful for reproducingclinical scenarios in diabetic patients [3]. On the other hand, AIDA has been available in internet (AIDA on-line) since 1998. Now, in 2001, AIDA v4.3 incorporated the Glycosylated hemoglobin estimation (A1c ) in its results. The last version of AIDA runs on IBM Pentium PC or compatibles with 80386/80486 processors. Also, there exists a version that runs on Applet Macintosh as a virtual PC or...