{"id":427,"date":"2017-07-06T15:11:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T22:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenwalger.com\/blog\/?p=427"},"modified":"2017-07-06T15:21:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T22:21:07","slug":"flask-blood-glucose-tracker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenwalger.com\/blog\/python\/flask\/flask-blood-glucose-tracker\/","title":{"rendered":"Flask Blood Glucose Tracker"},"content":{"rendered":"

My oldest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes<\/a> at the age of two. Technology has come a long way in terms of tracking blood sugar levels, but I thought I would start a Python web application\u00a0to do so. I’ll be using the Flask<\/a> web framework for the project and, since I’m not a marketing or product naming genius, will call the project Flask Blood Glucose Tracker. I’m certainly open to other, more catchy, names.<\/p>\n

This is somewhat of a different post for me, in that I’ll be walking through the generation of an actual application. The application will mostly be a minimal viable product (MVP) though. It should,\u00a0however,\u00a0be a good tutorial on how to integrate some concepts and technologies together. As such, in this first post, I’ll cover some of the project specifications and features that I’d like to include and work on implementing them in future posts.<\/p>\n

Application for Diabetes<\/h3>\n

Diabetics have to check their blood glucose levels frequently, typically using a blood sugar monitor<\/a>\"\". These checks involve getting a small portion of blood from a finger (or arm) prick and having the monitor test it. It then returns a measurement of the amount of glucose in the blood as a number of milligrams per deciliter (mG\/dL). These readings then will be the numbers we want to record in our application.<\/p>\n

It is also important to know if the reading is taken before or after eating and the time of day the reading was taken. Therefore, the application will need to accommodate for that as well. The readings themselves, along with the time of day and relation to meal time are all factors into the amount of insulin needs to be injected.<\/p>\n

Throughout this, and subsequent posts, I will do my best to explain diabetes-specific\u00a0terms in as user-friendly of a way as possible. I am basing much of the numbers that I use, ranges of “good and bad”, etc. on managing my daughter’s diabetes over the last 14 years and the countless doctor appointments I’ve attended. As a disclaimer, I am not a medical professional. Please check with your physician about specifics with diabetes. There is a Diabetes For Dummies<\/a>\"\" book which provides a decent overview as well.<\/p>\n

Flask Blood Glucose Tracker Application Features<\/h3>\n

There are already a lot of excellent products on the market for keeping track of one’s blood sugar levels. With that in mind, this application is going to be fairly simple to start. I would like to build it with growth in mind, however, so building a REST API into the project seems like a good idea. My basic feature list to start with is:<\/p>\n