[Novalug] Diabetes Software chance

[Nino Pereira]

Peter,

suggestions for Linux software to use with diabetes test meters.
The software that do exist is of course for windows only

is there more than one piece of software that you're trying to
redo? In that case, besides doing it in Java could you do it
in Fortran?
> 
> I wrote Abbott Diabetes Care - who produces the meter I use myself and
> asked. And they're more than open to the suggestion of releasing the
> specifications/protocols to talk with the Freestyle family meters.

This is actually very good of them. I have no idea what that meter looks
like and how it communicates, but it's all bits and bytes, so when you
have the specs you should be able to convert whatever it gives
you (presumably, blood glucose levels, in some coded form).

> Here's my plan should I get the communication specs - to initially make
> a basic program in Java that will read the meter data, and hold a small
> local "database" of meter readings. But I need something to hold the 
data in;  what suggestions do you have?

My suggestion? ascii. What you want from your meter is, presumably,
a number, the glucose level in whatever units you want (I'd favor
kg/m^3, but I'm sure the medical community uses some weird, non-standard
unit like mg/l). You can call it something like 'glucose.dat'.
You can read it with an editor: no further coding necessary, and it's
not even necessary to plot it out. You can add a time and date stamp,
your body temperature, or anything else that you may want.

with the help of the community other meters would be added.

With other meters you'd have to figure out what their
bits and bites coming into the computer mean, and convert this to
glucose data. So, you'd need their protocols too, but, once you
are done and you got your ascii file, you are done.

 From what I read on Abbott's Co-Pilot page (is that the unit you 
have?), their program does little more than plot the data, as a line 
graph, a
bar graph, a pie chart, whatever. GNU/linux comes with various
plotting packages that take ascii files. The one I use is xmgrace
(in /usr/bin/xmgrace: type 'xmgrace' a the prompt, 'man xmgrace', etc.,
the usual linux stuff).

features for diets and other medical records could be added.

That's something else. Presumably, those data are available and all
you'd have to do is to copy them, and have a program to call up the
relevant ones (like: if the glucose level is this high, then look
at that file). This is where it gets complicated, and I bow out.

HTH,

Nino