An important part of the SHAPES project is the use of medical devices that provide periodic measurements (at least once a day) for long periods of observation, to monitor patient’s blood pressure, blood glucose levels, oxygen saturation, heart rate or weight.

The control of these physiological measures is usually carried out with the use of fixed thresholds. TREE Technology proposed the use of techniques such as Statistical Process Control (SPC) to identify changes in these variables for the improvement of patient monitoring.

These techniques are simple and effective and are supported by graphics, that are easily understood by healthcare professionals. These techniques provide custom control limits considering the user’s previous measurements. The calculated control limits evolve over time and make it possible to evaluate the evolution of the measures, by providing a classification for each value, which may be “in control”, “out of control” or “on alert”.

This classification of observations, among other aspects, enables to assess of the patient’s own evolution and observe the effects of a change in medication. Ultimately, the outputs from this analysis can be shown in a simple, graph-based way, exemplified in the figure below. Here, the end-user is the healthcare professional, and this solution allows him to monitor his patients in a personalised way, considering the evolution of previous records.