The technology will allow people to detect diabetes using the camera on their cell phone.

It detects when there is a change in blood flow in the body, which is the first sign that diabetes has occurred, by detecting when a patient's finger is placed on the sensor of a cell phone. The usefulness and low cost of this technology have attracted the attention of experts.

Smartphones are great allies for the common man, mainly because they make it easy to do many of the common tasks that people have to do.

Scientists see this as an opportunity to make the work of medical professionals easier and give patients more power in managing their own illnesses.

It is easy for patients to be diagnosed with diabetes using a cell phone camera. The idea is that one day, anyone with diabetes will be able to see if it's too early.

Presented at the 68th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans this month, the work involves developing an algorithm that allows users to easily configure a mobile app to identify signs that indicate diabetes.

Changes in blood flow in veins and how blood flows through them are detected using a device called photoplethysmography (PPG) that detects the changes.

It is possible to determine whether there is a change in blood volume by measuring the amount of infrared light absorbed or reflected by an external organ that is connected to the body. In the case of the solution proposed by the Americans, the information is obtained by placing a finger on the lens of a smartphone.

This will allow doctors to detect changes in blood flow in a particular blood vessel.

The resulting waveform will help doctors identify whether there is a change in blood volume in the vessel. This is because with each heartbeat, the blood pressure in the blood vessels increases and causes their walls to contract.

The expansion of the walls causes more light to reflect back to the camera. It is as if the greater amount of light that is reflected by the skin, the more vascular disorders the person has.

We show that using advanced technology and cameras in smartphones, we can detect vascular changes associated with diabetes. Developing screening tools that can be easily implemented in common settings could help people with diabetes detect it early. It is possible to identify more individuals who are at risk of developing diabetes and reduce the number of people who do not know they have this disease.

Tests

More than 54,000 people, who had an average age of 45, participated in the online study. Volunteers had to use an app that detects when their heart is beating quickly and then the algorithm to calculate their heart rate. Tests with the solution the researchers developed showed that the algorithms used by the researchers were accurate up to 97% of time. After research, it was discovered that for every 100 participants who were not diagnosed with diabetes, 97 actually did not have the disease, as indicated by the technology used.

In general, the use of PPG accurately identified, as indicated in the introduction to the test, the health status of the person with diabetes in more than 72% of cases. When scientists added other risk factors for diabetes, such as age, gender, BMI, and race, they found that the percentage of people who are considered diabetic increased to 81%.

Robert Avram, a researcher at the University of California, said he will test the algorithm in two cardiovascular clinics to verify the results of his study. The researchers also plan to evaluate how well this technology works in detecting diabetes early and test it in different groups of people based on their likelihood of developing the disease. The algorithms will be developed and put into practice within two years.

Self-care

Volanski, a doctoral candidate at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), believes that smartphones and other portable devices give people more ways to be healthy. Researchers say we now have powerful equipment that is capable of helping the healthcare sector, he says. Brazil's National Institute of Medical Research has developed an app to help doctors diagnose the symptoms of gestational diabetes.

Vandervoort, a professor at the University of Hasselt in Belgium and an expert in methods for monitoring atrial fibrillation even on cell phones, emphasizes that the proposed technology makes diagnosing and managing diabetes easy. People usually have smartphones that have a camera (read more on this page). It is a relatively simple and inexpensive way to screen large numbers of people who have complications that are becoming more prevalent, such as diabetes, which can cause serious problems.;

Robert Avram reminds us that the emergence of technology to solve health problems could have a profound impact on the medical profession. It is important for healthcare professionals to understand how the emergence of decision support technologies, such as algorithms, can help them better manage their health and recommend improvements to their treatment plan. Seven other professionals participated in the project: five doctors working in areas such as cardiology and epidemiology, and a student studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.