St Petersburg University students have invented a device for the remote observation of people suffering from diabetes and heart diseases

According to the data from Rosstat and National Registry, heart diseases cause approximately 1 million deaths in Russia, making up 56% of the total. About 4,3 million people, that is 3% of the population of Russia, were diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that causes severe complications. Patients often do not pay attention to the early symptoms and find out about their illnesses only during the later stage. Additionally, people who know their diagnosis are not always able to call for help when there is a sudden aggravation of their condition.

In the USA there is a platform that gives the possibility to control remotely the condition of people with heart diseases. Heart rate monitors, attached to special clothes, take ECG and send the data to a mobile phone application. The price of such product is around $400-500, this is why not every customer can afford them.

We invented a whole range of devices to cover various cases of vascular heart diseases and diabetes. So patients can choose the ones that answer their particular purposes.

The captain of the team Valentin Ershov

“You only need to install our application, and the changes will automatically be displayed on the screen of your mobile phone. The patients will be able to track their condition or ask their relatives to track it. The application is free, and the price of any device will be less than a few thousand roubles,” Valentin Ershov said. He is the captain of the team and a 4th year student of the chemistry, physics and material mechanics programme.

The students developed a bracelet with a gyro sensor, a device that will let people suffering from heart diseases and diabetes avoid severe complications from possible injures caused by suddenly falling down. It registers all sudden movements and immediately sends signals to the application. Having been informed quickly, relatives are able to be there to help on time. 

For diabetics the team created blood glucose meters that are attached to the arms of the patients. These devices are equipped with non-invasive tactile analysers to check the sugar level. If necessary, it inserts insulin under the skin. The process does not require any actions from patients and can be repeated up to ten times per day. The relevant data is also shown through the application.

For the people with vascular heart diseases the students are developing a waistcoat to check breathing, take ECG and send the data to mobile phones. Apart from monitoring the condition of patients, the application will be able to register the very first symptoms of diabetes or heart problems. The users will just have to complete a survey on their state of health, and if the application notices any alarming symptoms, it will recommend the user to have a doctor’s appointment.

Also, the development will provide the possibility to improve the quality of the healthcare service. You will be able to connect the application to the electronic workflow of health clinics, so that the results of your health monitoring will be in the patient file before the doctor’s appointment. The inventors hope that this will allow to maximise the time of examination of patients during their appointments. 

The students are planning to finish their work on the application, the gyro sensor bracelet, and the blood glucose meter waistcoats by the final stage of the competition. In the future, the innovators are planning to add a few new functions to the devices and to set up a small innovative enterprise on the basis of St Petersburg University.

The team consists of four people: Valentin Ershov (chemistry, physics and material mechanics) deals with the engineering part of the project; Anton Vorontsov (applied mathematics and control processes) works with IT; Irina Bode (biology) is responsible for biomedical aspects; and Ekaterina Baranova (management) carries out promotion of the start-up.