Potential role of computers in clinical investigation and management of diabetes mellitus.

Computers are likely to play an increasingly important role in the clinical investigation and management of patients with diabetes. The applications fall primarily into four areas: 1) data-base systems in clinics, hospitals, and research centers to facilitate surveillance of patients and analysis of data; 2) personal microcomputers for use by physicians and patients in storing, analyzing, and transmitting data; 3) portable devices to provide recommendations regarding insulin dose for patient use; and 4) memory-equipped glucose meters that provide verified data and have associated software with the capacity for sophisticated graphic and statistical analysis and detection of trends. An important outgrowth of the memory-based meter and the personal microcomputer is the ambulatory glucose profile (AGP). This is a display of the average pattern of glucose throughout the day, usually based on data from a 2-wk period. The AGP shows the median blood glucose, range, and 25th and 75th percentiles for each hour or in relationship to meals. By virtue of signal averaging in the presence of large random variability, this display may reveal patterns that are not evident on individual days.