Exploring new directions in disease surveillance for people with diabetes: lessons learned and future plans

The main objective of this paper is to report our achievements in investigating new directions in the disease surveillance field. Targeting the vulnerable group of people with diabetes, we explored the possibility of early detection of infections using an electronic disease surveillance system (eDSS); this system could collect data for certain physiology indicators, e.g. blood glucose and white blood cell count, by incorporating specific point-of-care (POC) devices. We performed an analysis using the data of two large-scale clinical studies that involved people with type-1 and type-2 diabetes correspondingly; also, we conducted a feasibility study to examine the available POC technology. Even though the analyses provided us with some evidence for further investigation, the available technological solutions appeared to have significant limitations, mainly in terms of usability. Based on our first-hand findings we defined the next steps of our research, i.e. the data collection in a controlled study and the subsequent development of the eDSS. Furthermore, the lessons learned in our project could facilitate the related research for other vulnerable population groups.