Diabetic peripheral neuropathy assessment and management system over mobile phones.

Abstract

Aims: The objective of this research is to create mobile phone based neuropathy diagnosis system to reduce the burden on patients visiting hospitals and to free-up consultation time for clinicians and allowing self-monitoring of neuropathy by patients. Methods: We present the methodology of calibrating mobile phones with neurothesiometer for assessment of peripheral neuropathy. This may serve as continuous monitoring of neuropathy with low-cost and easily accessible mobile devices as an alternative to the gold standard. The process involves quantification and analysing the vibration characteristics of neurothesiometer and transferring this data through mobile phone apps for secured and graduated assessment of neuropathy. Results: The data shows good correlation between mobile phone readings and those measured with neurothesiometer for stand-alone operations of mobile phones for neuropathy assessment. Results indicate that the application is reliable and provides accurate and repeatable data using mobile phones. These findings confirm our calibration process for a viable solution for peripheral neuropathy assessment using mobile applications and this also uses additional features of mobile phones to collect patient data and securely transferring to hospitals. Conclusions: This paper presented creation of a user-friendly, accessible screening method for diabetic neuropathy including progression tracking and neuropathy assessment. Currently patients are required to visit hospitals several times for neuropathy assessment. This research provides an economical, portable, and accurate way of screening diabetic peripheral neuropathy using smartphones. The test results indicated that the mobile device performs comparably well to the gold-standard neurothesiometer.