Diagram speed

We have fixed all minor problems on the diagram procedures. In addition we archieved to reduce the time to draw the diagrams to 1/3 of the previous time.

Wait indicator

To give some indication to wait for the draw operation to be finished we placed an animated gif behind the diagram. It took some time to find a solution that is working on Firefox and IE.

Debugging diagrams

We fixed several bugs in the diagrams "Glucose - Comparison of Days" and "Glucose - Proportional Trend". After thourough testing we are confident in the current presentation. Some minor glitches remain to be fixed.

Diagram for Proportional Trend

The analysis has beend extended with the diagram "Glucose - Proportional Trend". This diagram shows the proportional evolution of the four classes of blood glucose values over time. It uses the already known colour system of the diagram "Glucose - Comparison of days" to classify the measured values. This allows the identification of negative long term developments like the increase of the number of blood glucose values above 200 mg/dL (11.11 mmol/L).

Share your diary with others

The share system has been implemented to share your diary with other people at your own choice. Just publish the link of your share in newsgroup postings or e-mails. You can also close your share at any time.

Diary section

The diary section of the web interface is now functional. Now you can view the diary entries between two dates. Furthermore you can edit an entry to correct typos. Just click the save symbol at the end of the row to save your changes.

Server offline for 1/2 day

Technical problems with our DSL router separated the server from the internet for 1/2 day. The router has been replaced and everything seems to be ok now. We are sorry for the inconvenience and that it took so long to identify the culprit hardware.

Backup your diary

Within Glucosurfer.org you will invest some serious amount of time to manage your diary. This is your investment and therefore it is important that your data is save. Furthermore it is important that you are in charge of your data.

We will meet your needs by offering a full backup of your diary - in addition to our normal backup strategy. This is done via XML which is an open standard for data exchange. This will enable you to create local copies of your data and to take and analyse your data at home. Maybe you have powerfull software tools that support XML to analyze and refine your data in ways we have not thought off today. With the XML backup you are free to do so.

The XML path can offer further ways of data exchange. For example to import data from diabetes management tools you are already using at home. Please let me know if this kind of import would be usefull for you.

Diagram for Comparison of Days

One of my primary goals is the recognition of systematic problems. For instances that increased levels of blood glucose in the morning are not random but related to some incorrect handling like to much bread units just before sleep or an shortage of long term insulin.

To get an impression of the overall quality I have created a new diagramm called "Glucose - comparison of days". One day is represented as a color bar from top to bottom. Within this color bar the various levels of blood glucose are represented by colors:

black: blood glucose greater 200
red: blood glucose greater 140 and smaller 200
green: blood glucose greater 60 and smaller 140
blue: blood glucose below 60

By changing the zoom factor you can adjust how many days are represented within one diagram. Therefore you can compare days and see the evolution of your treatment. This means if you draw the right conclusions you will see that red turns to green and that the overall green increases.

I think that this diagram is very important to get a realistic view on the quality of your diabetes treatment.

Of course this diagram is exagerating the problems a little bit. But still you will be able to see when things get worse or better.

Bug hunting

I found two bugs in the WAP section:

1) the entered values where not saved when the correction signatur was negative (-) and the correction value itself was left empty.

2) the time zone calculation after midnight was incorrect. This means that the recommended date was one day short.

24 hour profile

Your 24 hour profile can now be managed in the setting section. The BU factor is used to calculate the insulin needed. Via WAP you enter that you are planning to eat 3 BU. So the system will extract the BU factor valid for the measured time. The BUs are then multiplied with this factor to calculate the rapid insulin:

3 BU x 2.5 BU Factor = 8 units rapid insulin

The WAP system will make this recommendation for you. In addition the system will calculate the insulin needed to reach you target glucose value. This correction insulin is calculated in an extra field to separate BU effects from correctional effects.

This correction will furthermore adapt to the physical activity you have entered. The heavier your physical involvement the more the correction will reduce or turn to negative. Negative means that the amount for you BU should also be reduced.

Of course these are all recommendations - you are in charge and you have full control to change the values as you like.

Joined forces

I am very happy that a friend of mine joined Glucosurfer.org and started to fill his diary via mobile phone. His every day use will create the type of feedback that a project like this needs to grow further. It is an interesting experience to see his current glucose levels and how he has managed the day so far. Wow!

With this motivation I started to work on the glucose diagram and fixed several bugs. Especially the passage from one day to the other was sometimes miscalculated. In addition I added a title that shows the date and weekday. Now the diagram seems mature and fast enough. This gives me time to work on the web interface in the next days.

Graphical engine improved

Yesterday I experienced some major lockups in the graphical analysis. As a result the whole site was blocked. I decided to redesign the graphical engine and made it independent from MFC. As a result the engine shrinked dramatically and so far the lockups disappeared.

From theory to practice

Here is an example how this project will visualize your diary. It is based on live and fictional test data entered via mobile phone:

http://www.glucosurfer.org/goto?diagram&language=en&user=278&share=3788281

As you can see Google Maps is my role model for this type of diagram. Like Google Maps you can grab the diagram with your mouse and then you can drag to the left or right side.

The link above is also an example how your diary can be shared via mail, newsgroup or website. You can decide wheter this share is active or disabled. So you are in control of your audience.

Please let me know if you like it.

Long way

In the middle of 2006 it came to my mind that my paper diary for diabetes is in a bad shape. It was inconvenient to take it always with me because of its size. In addition its valuable data like long term trends were not evaluated statistically.

It was immediatly clear that this problem could be solved with a mobile phone and a nice piece of software. In the 8th class I had a computer course with the famous Apple ][e and till then I have great passion for computer systems. Quite naturally this lead to a Master in Information Systems at the University of Münster in the year 2001.

With all the knowledge at hand I began Glucosurfer.org in September 2006 with these design parameters:

• non commercial project
  
• new values for the diabetes diary are entered via mobile phone (WAP) and browsers (HTML)
  
• the entered data should be collected in a mature database system for intense analysis
• the visual representation of the diary should help in the quick identification of problems
• the diary could be shared with other members of the diabetes community
  
• the service should be usable in full annonymity of its users
• HTML 4, CSS and Ajax technology
  

Now, some months later I have made progress in all these design aspects. The first result can be viewed and used on www.glucosurfer.org.

Blog started

Finally I have managed to create my blog about my project called Glucosurfer.org

You can contact me via e-mail if you like.