**4. Conclusion**

The success of the treatment of the chronic patient is directly related to the execution of the care plan prepared by the health team for the patient. Scientific evidence indicates technology as a powerful tool for patient self-care.

The boost in health technology in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) in recent years has triggered the emergence of various devices and services aimed at the chronic patient.

However, their dissemination among the population remains a great challenge. Most existing solutions are proprietary and difficult to integrate. While the Internet of Things (IoT) occupies an increasingly larger space, the lack of Internet in Brazilian homes prevails. Although wearable devices are becoming fashionable, devices certified for monitoring patient health conditions and for data transfer are rare. In Brazil, during this study, only one blood pressure metre met these requirements, whereas the main brands of blood glucose metres have versions available in the market with ease of communication and proprietary applications to help in controlling blood glucose levels. Despite the demand for health solutions and services using the IoT, much work lies ahead regarding the establishment of standards and requirements for IoT platforms.

In this study, we sought an original solution for the problem of chronic patient monitoring combined with the need for compatibility with televisions and with the possibility of interaction with smartphones and other wearable devices. Typically, studies based on IoT are limited to the development of a new smartphone application that implements the patient care plan and devices that measure either the blood glucose or blood pressure levels.

The study suggests that the starting point for using this technology is the consultant physician, who prepares and loads the patient care plan to the gateway that will be installed in the patient's home. The availability of wireless networks does not prevent the gateway from alerting the patient about tasks and collecting the data from the blood glucose and pressure metres.

User authentication is crucial for data security, which was achieved by a practical and secure solution based on a fingerprint sensor.

Conversely, integration with smartphones and wearable devices, such as smartwatches, was also implemented because these options enable the user to move while maintaining the support provided by the gateway in terms of task alerts and adding fall detection and logging functions. The selection of devices is used to monitor chronic patients with hypertension and diabetes. Other chronic diseases are also indicated for monitoring but are outside the scope of this study.

The present study was limited to discussing the technology that helps with chronic patient self-care and the problem of one user per consultant physician. The issues inherent to the monitoring of several concurrent users by the same team are outside the scope of this study and will be addressed in future studies.

A pilot project aiming at testing the proposed technology is expected in the near future. At least 10 chronic patients with diabetes and hypertension above 70 years old and with a high risk of fall will be selected to test such technology. Internet access at home will be required. After obtained ethical approval and the signed informed consent of the patient, patient will be monitored for at least 6 months, and sensor data will be recorded. Patients will be interviewed in order to evaluate their acceptability. Additionally, recorder data will be used to evaluate usability and impact in patient care.
