BLOOD GLUCOSE METER WITH LOW COST USER INTERFACE HAVING PROGRAMMED GRAPHIC INDICATORS

• US 20160047771A1
• Filed: 08/15/2014
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Mears, Mark G.
• Granted Patent: US 11,035,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/25 Colour; Spectral properties, i.e. comparison of effect of material on the light at two or more different wavelengths or wavelength bands
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/12 Circuits of general importance; Signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/3273 Devices therefor, e.g. test element readers, circuitry details not specific to biochemical electrodes G01N33/4875
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/48785 Electrical and electronic details of measuring devices for physical analysis of liquid biological material not specific to a particular test method, e.g. user interface or power supply
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/36 using visible light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A blood glucose meter with a low cost user interface has a color glucose scale that is indexed by indicators programmed according to the user'"'"'s blood glucose target range through a separating computing device due to the limited meter user interface. The color glucose scale is static and placed adjacent to the indicator such as by being molded into the housing, printed on the housing, or attached to the display. The low cost user interface has a monochrome segmented display with certain segments serving as a plurality of indicators. An indicator scaling module uses the target blood glucose range of the person with diabetes to calculate the blood glucose ranges for each indictor to index the color glucose measurement scale. The indicator scaling module can also assign attributes to the indicator such as flashing. The graphic representation of the user'"'"'s blood glucose measurement aids in user interpretation.

Claims

1. A blood glucose meter with user interface having programmed graphic indicators, comprising:

a meter housing having a strip port carried by the meter housing;

a meter processor having meter memory carried inside the meter housing;

a measurement module coupled to the strip port and connected to the meter processor;

a meter communications port coupled to the meter processor;

a meter display coupled to the processor, comprising

a color glucose scale that is static and carried by the meter housing, the color

glucose scale comprises,

a first color area designating a user target range,

a second color area designating an above target range, and

a third color area designating a below target range,

a monochrome segmented display coupled to the processor;

a plurality of numbers on the monochrome segmented display that display a blood glucose measurement numerically,

a plurality of indicators, comprises

target range indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the first color area of color glucose scale,

above target range indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the second color area of color glucose scale, and

below target range of indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the third color area of color glucose scale, and

an indicator scaling module located in meter memory that is non-transient configured to calculate an indicator range for each of the plurality of indicators in relation to a user target range that is specific to the user.

2. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 wherein the indicator scaling module,

calculates the indicator range for the target range indicators by sub-dividing the user target range by the target range indicators quantity,

calculates the indicator range for the above target range indicators by sub-dividing a user above target range by the above target range indicators quantity, and

calculates the indicator range for the below target range indicators by sub-dividing a user below target range by the below target range indicators quantity.

3. The blood glucose meter of claim 2 wherein the indicator range for the above target range indicators and below target range indicators is logarithmically scaled.

4. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 further comprising,

a high range indicator on the monochrome segmented display located at a highest area of the second color area of the color glucose scale with a predetermined high range;

and

a low range indicator on the monochrome segmented display located at a lowest area of the third color area of the color glucose scale with a predetermined low range.

5. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 wherein one or more of the plurality of indicators is configured to flash at a predetermined flash rate.

6. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 wherein the target range indicators are programmed to index the first color area designating the user target range from about 70 mg/dL to about 160 mg/dL, the above target range indicators are programmed to index the second color area designating the above target range from about 161 mg/dL to about 300 mg/dL, and the below target range indicators are programmed to index the third color area designating the below target range from about 10 mg/dL to about 69 mg/dL.

7. The blood glucose meter of claim 6 wherein the above target range indicators are programmed to index the second color area designating a high range from about 301 mg/dL to about 600 mg/dL, and the below target range indicators are programmed to index the third color area designating a low range of less than about 10 mg/dL.

8. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 wherein the color glucose scale is selected from one of a bar, a segmented bar, and circular shapes.

9. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 wherein the color glucose scale is configured on the meter housing adjacent to the meter display.

10. The blood glucose meter of claim 1 further comprising, a single user interface button carried within the meter housing and connected to the meter processor.

11. The blood glucose meter of claim 10 wherein the single user interface button operates to perform a meter function selected from one of activating the handheld blood glucose meter to display the most recent blood glucose measurement, show blood glucose averages, perform a display test, and activate and deactivate wireless communications.

12. A blood glucose measurement system with user interface having programmed graphic indicators, comprising:

a meter housing having a strip port carried by the meter housing;

a meter processor having meter memory carried by the meter housing;

a measurement module coupled to the strip port and connected to the meter processor;

a meter communications port coupled to the meter processor;

a meter display coupled to the processor, comprising

a color glucose scale that is static and carried by the housing, the color glucose scale comprises,

a first color area designating a user target range,

a second color area designating an above target range, and

a third color area designating a below target range,

a monochrome segmented display coupled to the processor;

a plurality of numbers on the monochrome segmented display that display a blood glucose measurement numerically,

a plurality of indicators, comprises

target range indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the first color area of color glucose scale,

above target range indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the second color area of color glucose scale, and

below target range of indicators on the monochrome segmented display located adjacent to the third color area of color glucose scale, and

an indicator scaling module located in meter memory that is non-transient configured to calculate an indicator range for each of the plurality of indicators in relation to a user target range that is specific to the user;

a computing device having a device housing;

a device processor have device memory carried inside the device housing;

a device user interface coupled to buttons carried inside the device housing;

a device communications port coupled to the device processor;

a device display coupled to the processor; and

a target range field on the device display for entering a user target range that is communicated from the device communications port to the meter communications port for programming the user target range into the blood glucose meter.

13. The blood glucose measurement system of claim 12 wherein the indicator scaling module,

calculates the indicator range for the target range indicators by sub-dividing the user target range by the target range indicators quantity,

calculates the indicator range for the above target range indicators by sub-dividing a user above target range by the above target range indicators quantity, and

calculates the indicator range for the below target range indicators by sub-dividing a user below target range by the below target range indicators quantity.

14. The blood glucose measurement system of claim 12 wherein the computing device is selected from one of a mobile phone having a diabetes management application and wireless connectivity to the meter communications port, a tablet computer having the diabetes management application and wireless connectivity to the meter communications port, and a personal computer with wired connectivity to the meter communications port and connectivity to a network.

15. A method for programming graphic indicators on a blood glucose meter with user interface, comprising:

establishing communications between the blood glucose meter and a computing device;

launching a diabetes application on the computing device;

entering a target range into the diabetes application on the computing device;

transmitting the target range from the computing device to a blood glucose meter;

calculating a target indicator range for each of the target range indicators, by the blood glucose meter, by sub-dividing the user'"'"'s target range by the target range indicators quantity;

calculating an above target indicator range for each of the above target range indicators, by the blood glucose meter, by sub-dividing the user'"'"'s above target range by the above target range indicator quantity;

calculating a below target indicator range for each of the below target range indicators, by the blood glucose meter, by sub-dividing a user below target range by the below target range indicator quantity;

storing indicator ranges into non-transient memory, by the blood glucose meter, the target indicator range for each of the target range indicators, the above indicator range for each of the above target range indicators, and the below indicator range for each of the below target range indicators;

inserting a test strip into a strip port of the handheld blood glucose meter to activate the blood glucose meter;

applying a blood sample to the test strip to perform a blood glucose measurement;

calculating the blood glucose measurement by the blood glucose meter;

displaying the blood glucose measurement numerically on the blood glucose meter; and

displaying the blood glucose measurement graphically by one of a plurality of indicators indexing a color glucose scale.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising,

calculating a high indicator range, by the blood glucose meter, by sub-dividing the user'"'"'s high range by the high range indicator quantity;

and

calculating a low indicator range, by the blood glucose meter, by sub-dividing a user'"'"'s low range by the low range indicator quantity.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the indicator blood glucose range for the above target range indicators and below target range indicators is logarithmically scaled.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the color glucose scale is selected from one of a bar, a segmented bar, and circular shapes.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein one of the plurality of indicators indexing the color glucose scale for graphic display is configured to flash at a predetermined flash rate.

20. A blood glucose meter with user interface having programmable graphic indicators, comprising:

a meter housing having a strip port;

a meter processor having meter memory carried inside the meter housing;

a measurement module coupled to the strip port and connected to the meter processor;

a meter display coupled to the processor,

a color glucose scale that is static and located adjacent to the display, the color glucose scale comprises,

a first color area designating a user target range,

a second color area designating an above target range, and

a third color area designating a below target range,

wherein the display is capable to display

a plurality of numbers that display a blood glucose measurement numerically,

and at least one indicator, comprises

target range indicator displayed adjacent to the first color area of color glucose scale, if the blood glucose measurement is within the user target range or

an above target range indicator displayed adjacent to the second color area of color glucose scale, if the blood glucose measurement is within the above target range or

a below target range indicator displayed adjacent to the third color area of color glucose scale, if the blood glucose measurement is within the below target range and

an indicator scaling module located in meter memory that is non-transient characterized in that the indicator scaling module calculates an indicator range for each of the target ranges based on an user input so that the target ranges are specific to the user and the at least one target range indicator is displayed adjacent to a color area based on the calculated indicator ranges.

21. The blood glucose meter of claim 20 wherein the indicator scaling module,

calculates the indicator range for the target range indicators by sub-dividing the user target range by the target range indicators quantity,

calculates the indicator range for the above target range indicators by sub-dividing a user above target range by the above target range indicators quantity, and

calculates the indicator range for the below target range indicators by sub-dividing a user below target range by the below target range indicators quantity.