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OU Diabetes Project Uses Smartphones For Research

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Ohio University researchers are going to use a device many people use everyday as a research tool to study diabetes.

Ohio University's College of Engineering and Osteopathic Medicine Professor Cindy Marling is leading a project aimed at predicting blood glucose levels for patients with type one diabetes.

"Diabetes makes your blood glucose level go up and so you may take insulin to bring them down. The problem is when they can come down too low and so it's very important to be able to predict in advance when this problem will occur," says Marling.

The research is using smartphones to track patient's daily routines and how that impacts their levels.

The project recently got a $350,000 grant.

Marling says they'll have the grant for three years and hope to develop a device people can use everyday.

"We have hopes of actually using this in a medical device so that if a patient were to be going low overnight while they were asleep, we could alert them, we could alarm them and wake them up. So that they can adjust their insuline," says Marling.

Marling was a guest on WOUB's Newswatch program on Friday.