PENANG, 2 August 2015 – In order to progress with the current technology, a smartphone or tablet-based application has been developed to solve the problem of diabetic patients using the 555 note book to record and monitor blood glucose levels for diabetes cases more efficiently.

It was this intent that led to the innovation made by the “The Newcomers” group from Pusat Sejahtera USM, with its Random Glucose Test Application, which has helped them to become the champions in the 2015 Creative and Innovative Group (KIK) Convention (Management category) held recently at the Dewan Budaya USM.

The Random Glucose Test Application was created after getting positive results from a survey done with 166 diabetic patients in the span of 2 weeks by Pusat Sejahtera USM.

The leader of “The Newcomers” group, Assistant Pharmaceutical Officer at Pusat Sejahtera (Medical and Dental Centre) Main Campus USM, Mazura Zubaidi, 38, said, the system was developed to deal with the problem of using the 555 note book, which was less efficient and was intended to assist the diabetic patients.

“This is a user-friendly application which need to be downloaded into a patient’s smartphone or tablet and the instructions would be given in the application itself,” explained Mazura.

She further said, the patient only needs to key-in the data/readings of every blood glucose test done by the patient and this application would then show a graph of the results for comparison.

“The data of every blood glucose test recorded into this application would also have a section for the patient to take note of the types of food taken while the test is done, for the purpose of reference whenever the glucose level goes up, and the results from the glucose test keyed-in into the application would automatically show whether the patient is experiencing hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, ‘acceptable’ or ‘ideal’ levels, utilising different colours for each glucose reading,” she added.

Meanwhile, a diabetic patient, Mr Rajah Muthusamy said, the development of this application has helped him in keeping records and in monitoring his blood glucose levels each time during treatment and he is very happy with this application.

“Apart from that, this Random Glucose Test Application could be slightly improved in its testing function, which needs to be at the top-level in the system,” he said.

The Director of Pusat Sejahtera USM, Dr. Normala Abdul Wahid also said, with this random glucose testing application system, Pusat Sejahtera has been able to manage the problem of monitoring diabetic patients.

“I am thankful to the KIK group from Pusat Sejahtera USM for this innovative idea,” she further added.

By using this application, patients no longer need to use the 555 note book to record information concerning their glucose test and bring it on the appointed day at the Pusat Sejahtera, as the patient only needs to show the readings stated in the application.

The Random Glucose Test Application also includes an article on healthcare and on practicing a healthy lifestyle.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Text: Hafiz Meah Ghouse Meah/Photo: Mohd. Fairus Md. Isa