A Mini Health Analyzer: An Android Application

 

Shweta S., Rajiniraja M.^*

School of Bio-Science and Technology, VIT University, Vellore-632014, India.

 

ABSTRACT:

The aim of this work is to develop an Android application (a mini health analyzer) which focuses on some of the health problems of an individual's such as dizziness, rash, acne, ear infection asthma, diabetes, eczema, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and provides immediate information from first-aid measures to major health issues. This app will get the basic details as input, like their age, gender, blood group, allergies, body height and weight from the users while registering for the app, and then use these details to respond to the enquiry of the individual like their BMI, blood pressure (BP), calorie intake, etc. This app runs on android devices through internet. The linking of database with the application was successfully achieved thus storing user details and information about the diseases in the database which forms the backbone of this application as these information are later used by the app for its efficient performance. This app will come to the rescue in health related situations which we face in day to day life.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

In today’s world of technology, mobile applications form a huge part of every individual’s life comparatively making life easier and simpler^1,2. Today, most of the people face health related problems on a daily basis. Thus the development of this app could form an appropriate, affordable and time saving solution to this, as it eliminates the need of the user to see a doctor for very minute problems like common cold, hair fall, tooth ache etc. Though it’s an android app, it is developed in a way such that it functions like a junction by providing links to all external websites developed for this application which contains information about the diseases. The features like calculation of BMI, calorie requirement, blood pressure range with immediate relief are more essential to avoid incidences³. The idea behind this work was to develop a system which provides information about the difficulties or discomforts which people face in day to day life.

 

Unlike a search engine (like google, yahoo etc.) which provides the user with hundreds of websites with related information which might or might not be useful. This application focuses on providing useful and filtered data collected from trusted and reliable sources including WHO approved websites, journals, books etc. by thorough research and generalization. It covers a wide range of health problems from the smallest troubles like dizziness, rash, acne, ear infection to major ones like asthma, diabetes, eczema, PCOS providing information about the definition, causes, symptoms, treatments and the immediate first-aid measures to be taken. Hence, the app simplifies the work of the user by giving them an access to all these issues at one place.

 

MATERIALS AND SOFTWARE:

In order to develop this app, a proper understanding of various tools like Eclipse, XAMPP, GenyMotion and technologies like Java, XML, PHP, SQL, HTML and CSS was needed. Eclipse software was used to develop this android application where it used Java language for the working of the app and XML to design the layout of the login page, registration page, profile page, data/information page, update page and forgot password page for the app.

 

Genymotion was used as an emulator/virtual device to run the app. Xampp provides local server which was used to test the working of this app. Here, PHP was used to create a connection between the database which stored the information of users (provided at the time of registration for the app) and application. HTML and CSS technologies were used to create and design the website containing data about the diseases. For this thorough research was conducted to find out about the concept and working of these tools and technologies⁴.

 

METHODS AND DESIGN:

Eclipse is an open-ended and language-neutral open source software that provides the integrated development environment (IDEs) which provides integration of tools to work with different content type like Java, HTML, XML, PHP, etc. to facilitate the software development process. As studied by J.des Rivieres et al (2004), the idea is that if these tools work together well then software developer can work in a better and efficient way, the use of IDE makes software developer more productive⁵. Eclipse takes additional tools to expand its use, to work with different content types. Eclipse software is built for Integrating, Discovering and Running modules called plug-ins. A tool provider writes each tool as a plug-in which then works on the files in workspace of Eclipse⁶.

 

Eclipse has well defined Interface, Classes and Method which developers can efficiently use. The platform is also efficient for the development of new tools. There are pre-defined libraries present in software like, Java archive (JAR) which is used to code in Java language. Each plug-in has a Manifest file used to declare its interconnection with other plug-ins, the manifest file contains XML. Java virtual machine is use for Eclipse platform to run, each plug-in is assigned to its own java class loader which is responsible for loading its classes⁶.

Figure 1 shows the overview of working of the application in which the user needs to first register for the application and then can access its features after logging in with their username and password. Once logged in, user can see their details in profile page and can modify them with time. Various calculations like BMI, minimum calorie requirement and BP range with immediate relief can be obtained by them. The search page has direct link with a number of websites developed for this app containing information related to the symptoms. Users can also change their password if forgotten.

 

Design:

 

Figure 1: Overview of the application

 

Figure 2a shows our home page where registered user can directly login or new users can register to our application. If in case user forgets its password, he/she can simply change it in forgot page with the help of security question and answer. Figure 2b shows the registration page, new user needs to register to app for its utilization. As seen in the figure during registration user is asked to feed all the mentioned information which are later used by app to give users proper analysis of their health.

 

In the profile page, app retrieves the information from the database of each user (Figure 2c). With the help of stored information in database, user can calculate their BMI, minimum calorie intake and their Blood pressure range with the immediate relief for it.

 

Interface:

 

Figure 2: a) Login Page, b) Registration Page c) Profile Page  d) Update Page

Despite, the user can regularly update their data into their update page (Figure 2d). The updated data will be stored in thedatabase and reflected in their profile page.

 

Figure 3: Search Page

 

Figure 4: Website page for Thyroid

 

Figure 3illustrate the search page, this provides website links for various diseases/ discomfort or some for just guidance. This page is divided into different categories like, troubles, allergies, women section, skin care and sex education. These websites can be accessed by users according to their need.  Figure 4 shows a web pages contains information which are collected from various books and authentic websites over the Internet. Most of the data are divide into 5 categories, definition, causes, symptoms, its treatment and home remedies. All these web pages have same layout and within the website a query form is there in which users can post their query if needed.

 

DISCUSSION:

Many health care systems have been developed based on different aspects of health or fitness. There are many fitness app in the market but our focus is on the health care app, some of the related work areiCare, this app enables the patient to access the medical information and support system. It provides appropriate medication using medical expert system with the help of pattern recognition. It evaluates symptoms mentioned by the users, finds out the probability of the severity of the diseases and prescribes the appropriate medication. The more patient uses this app, more accurate the results will be⁷.Medication reminder and healthcare, it has an automatic alarm system for the dosage time of a patient and it consist a database of doctors area wise with their specialization, so users can book an appointment with the doctors present in their database⁸.

 

Health analyzer app doesn’t involve the use of an artificial intelligence, it is rather based on simple but efficient idea, and the idea behind is not to provide its user with appropriate medication or list of doctor but to inform them about their discomforts and what causes it and how to treat them at home, if it can be, it tries to provide its user with the useful data available all over the internet at one place, and help them analyzer/ monitor their health. It also has other features like various health calculators, BMI calculator, BP range calculator and minimum calorie requirement calculator which users has access to. It doesn’t make its user to choose a particular disease/ calculator compulsorily but provide them with option and it’s totally onto the users whether they want to use it.

 

We used Eclipse software to develop this android application, its backend is written in Java language and front-end in XML, this app also includes website development for the diseases mentioned in the Information page.

 

CONCLUSION:

The significance of this app, it can be used by a large number of users at a same time irrespective of their place. It has simple and user friendly interface which can be used by anyone. This app will be useful and appreciated by people from all age groups and gender, like for pregnant women it includes a pregnancy guide which will guide them throughout pregnancy period, for women it also has different sections which includes PCOS and periods, and for elderly we have included joint pain and nutrients deficiency. It also includes other discomforts which everyone faces in daily life and helps them to deal with it.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Consolvo S, KlasnjaP, McDonald DW, et al. Goal-Setting Considerations for Persuasive Technologies that Encourage Physical Activity. In: Proc. of Persuasive 09, Claremont, California, USA,2009:1–8

2.       Long, JD and Stevens KR. Clinical Scholarship: Using Technology to Promote Self-Efficacy for Healthy Eating in Adolescents. J. of Nursing Sch. 36(2);2004:134–139

3.       Deepa VJ, Lakshmi Priya C, PriyadarshiniG, et al. Challenges and Issues in Android App Development- An Overview. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 5(1): 2015:811-814

4.       Yousuf H, Mustafa Z, Najmi H, et al. Smart Phones Application development using HTML5 and related technologies: A tradeoff between cost and quality. International Journal of Computer Science Issues. 9(3);2012:455-461

5.       Saurabh W and Satinderjit KG.A Framework for Web Based Student Record Management System using PHP. International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing, 3(8);2014: 24-33

6.       desRiviêres J and Wiegand J. Eclipse: A platform for integrating development tools. IBM Systems Journal, 43(2); 2004: 371-383

7.       Suraj S, Prathamesh K, Mukesh K, et al. Healthcare Services Using Android Devices. The International Journal Of Engineering And Science 3(4);2014: 41-45

8.       Deepti A, Kalpana M, Palak P. Medication reminder and healthcare -an android application. International Journal of Managing Public Sector Information and Communication Technologies 6(2); 2015:39-48

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accepted on 05.09.2017        © RJPT All right reserved