A number of diseases or conditions require regularly self-administered medication by the patient. If treatment requires variable doses which are dependent on a number of factors, it can be difficult for the patient to correctly estimate or calculate the required dosage.
Diabetes mellitus, more commonly referred to as simply diabetes, is an example of a chronic condition which requires continual self-administered medication to manage blood sugar levels and maintain a normal concentration of glucose in the blood (“euglycemia”). Type 1 diabetes results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and is treated or controlled with regular insulin injections. Type 2 diabetes results from cells which do not respond to or properly use the insulin produced naturally, and is controlled with insulin injections, or more commonly orally-administered medication which lowers glucose levels in the blood, known as oral hypoglycemic or antihyperglycemic agents.
One of the difficulties in self-administered medication for conditions such as diabetes is calculating the correct dosage of medication which is influenced by a number of variable factors. Diabetes requires daily, or even hourly, monitoring and precisely calculated medication dosages to successfully manage the disease. Physicians and/or other healthcare professionals cannot provide this service without significant expense and inconvenience, and new patients in particular invariably lack the knowledge, expertise, and/or experience to do so themselves without assistance.
Newly diagnosed diabetics often receive verbal and written diabetes education from a health-care professional, who will create a treatment plan tailored to the patient's requirements. The treatment plan is based upon a range of factors such as the patient's age, weight, activity and diet. However, diabetes is a 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year condition that requires frequent monitoring and self-administration of medication to match varying day-to-day needs.
There are many factors that a diabetic has to consider when calculating their medication requirements, which can leave patients feeling overwhelmed and often left wondering why their blood glucose levels might not be at a healthy range, potentially leading to further stress which can further adversely affect the patient's blood glucose level.
The patient has previously been required to estimate the required dosage of medication either by guesswork, paperwork, calculating numbers in their head, or using a software programme or electronic device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,682 entitled “Insulin-dose calculator disk”, for example, discloses a disk for determining an appropriate insulin injection dosage to be taken with a meal. The disk comprises a pair of co-axial circular members. By rotating the front member to align a window with one of a plurality of ingested carbohydrate values arranged around the outer perimeter of the rear member, an array of insulin injection dosage values printed radially on the rear member are revealed through a viewing panel or window in the front member. Printed radially on the front member adjacent the window are a range of blood glucose levels. The user thus turns the front member to align the window with the appropriate weight of carbohydrates to be consumed. After measuring blood glucose levels, the corresponding insulin injection dosage can be read from the window. The disk thus allows a patient to estimate the required dosage based upon the variable factors of food intake and present glucose levels, but is limited to those two factors alone. Furthermore, the calculator disk comprises an additional item which the patient must remember to carry with them and/or their medication, and the size and/or shape of the disk makes it inconvenient for doing so.
A number of electronic devices or calculators have also been devised to assist with estimating required medication dosages. However, these have the similar disadvantage in that they present another item which the patient must carry with them. The device may also be unnecessarily difficult to use, in particular for the elderly or very young unaccustomed to operating such devices. The devices are also dependent upon a power supply for operation.
Mobile devices, in particular mobile telephones, commonly already carried by many people now typically have the ability of executing third-party software. A calculator software programme designed to run on such a device has the further disadvantage of potentially not being able to be used in some environments, such as during a flight, for example, if the mobile telephone does not have a flight mode which can be easily enabled. Mobile telephones may also have a limited battery life of several days or less with heavy use.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,480 entitled “Dial indicator cap” discloses a cap for a container comprising a rotatable dial on top of the cap, with windows therein adapted to reveal information printed on the top of the cap. The device is adapted for “determining the required amount of a substance, such as a medication, as a function of a variable”, such as the weight of a patient. The dial is rotated such that a first viewing window displays a paediatric patient's weight, with the corresponding dosage being revealed by the second, diametrically opposed, viewing window. A third viewing window may also be provided, to display further information dependent upon the patient's weight, such as a higher initial dose and/or lower subsequent doses. However, the disclosed device cannot easily be adapted to calculate a required dosage based upon a plurality of variable factors.
In some cases, it may also be necessary for a patient to record information relating to the plurality of factors affecting required medication levels. This information may be relevant for the determination of personalised adjustment ratios necessary for the patient to accurately calculate or estimate the correct medication dosages. The aforementioned prior art devices cannot easily be adapted by the patient to record that information.