It may seem counterintuitive, but healthcare professionals actually have the tools now to provide better care for their patients coping with chronic conditions from a distance. Mobile Health Technology has enabled telemedicine to evolve from the connection between two or more medical facilities, to the connection between a single patient managing their disease from the comfort of their own home or at their workplace and their healthcare team.
But why do we want to keep patients out of the hospital? This newly evolving capability, connecting patients to their healthcare teams almost on a 24/7 basis and virtually through commercially available devices and software, has great potential for prompt care, early intervention, improved patient compliance to therapy which improves health outcomes, and reduced incidence of healthcare acquired conditions because fewer patients are spending time in the hospital or clinic where germ collection rates are high. The financial savings to the healthcare industry could have one of the most revolutionary impacts medical care has seen in a long time.
1. Improving Patient Compliance to Therapy
Over the last century, researchers began tracking and measuring patient compliance to therapeutic regimens such as medication, diet, exercise, and rehabilitation. They have been able to show that we are all very poor at following our regimen. We forget to take our medication, we take the wrong dose, we take it at the wrong time, we "blow off" our rehabilitation appointments because we feel "pretty good that day" and decide we don't need it. And the willpower required to keep up with the prescribed diet and exercise programs has proven a great challenge in today's society, with its emphasis on convenience.
Mobile health technology however is helping both patients and their healthcare teams make a positive improvement in compliance. With the use of small portable consumer devices such as smart phones, healthcare teams can set their software programs to send automatic reminders, coaching, and motivational messages to patients via cell phone text message.More »
2. An Online Management Tool to Share Your Diabetes Home Testing Results
The American Diabetes Association and Microsoft teamed up to develop an online software program that allows patients to enter their daily log of medications, diet, exercise, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and A1C readings. The patient's healthcare providers (primary care physician and nurse, endocrinologist and nurse, cardiologist, dietician, etc.) can then monitor these critical recordings at a much earlier stage, and much more often, than the patient who must schedule an office visit to be seen in the exam room.
Early intervention is an important factor in chronic disease management and preventing acute episodes that occur when data measurements fall out of the safe parameters. Therefore the ADA's "Diabetes 24/7" online management tool enables that critical prompt intervention.
The software behind this program is Microsoft's "HealthVault". Safety, security, and privacy are the hallmarks of its features. Encryption, logins, passwords, etc. are used to keep the readings protected.More »
3. Mobile Health Programs That Connect Patients to their Healthcare Team
- Activity and Wellness
- Cardiac Care
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
These programs have taken off as some of the first focus efforts for chronic condition management through mobile health technology. These programs employed not only the internet and text message technology, but also other small commercial medical devices to help measure, record, and report therapeutic regimen efficacy.
You can learn more about the SIMPill Bottle and Ambient Flashing Orb devices that patients can use in their home or at their place of work to remind them when, and how much, medicine to take. Researchers believe that if compliance improved on a national scale, the American healthcare industry would save billions of dollars in wasted effort and acute treatment that could have been prevented.More »