Five apps that pave the way for DIY healthcare

Florence

Most people carry around a mobile phone, making it a perfect tool for patients to use to report on their health.

That's the thinking behind “Flo”, an online service name after the 19th century nurse Florence Nightingale.

The way Flo works is simple. Patients check their health by taking readings like blood pressure or blood sugar levels and then texting those readings to a computer. That computer then checks the reading against previous measurements and texts the patient back advising them on the status of their health. That advice could be reassurance that their readings are normal, advice on how to address an anomalous reading or instruction to book an appointment with a clinician. The nurse or doctor who treats that patient also receives a log of these readings.

Flo can be adapted to work with patients with a variety of different conditions, from physical illness, such as pulmonary obstructive disease or diabetes, to mental disorders.

By enabling self-service healthcare Flo has has helped reduce costs, in one month Flo enabled 16,000 patient contacts to be carried out for less than £1,500.

Flo is not just suited to use with groups of patients, it can also be set up to provide cost-effective monitoring for individuals needing regular supervision. For example Flo was adapted for a patient who had repeatedly been admitted to hospital with hypothermia. The patient sent body temperature readings to Flo and the system advised both the patient and their clinician if the readings were dangerously low, helping prevent a repeat episode.

More than 1,000 patients and tens of healthcare teams in the UK are using Flo.

A Flo smartphone app is also being developed. 

Image: NHSsimple/YouTube.com

Patients Know Best

Patients Know Best allows patients to access and update medical records online, as well as working with their doctor to manage their healthcare.

Once a patient has created a Patients Know Best (PKB) account, they can view uploaded health records and let family members or clinicians view and update those records through the site. These records can include a range of information, such as clinic and discharge letters, prescriptions and test results.

PKB also allows patients to consult with clinicians, using secure messaging and video calls, as well as providing tools for doctor and patient to create personalised health plans.

The system is used by clinicians at Great Ormond Street Hospital, UCL Hospital, St Mark’s Hospital, Torbay Hospital and other health trusts in the UK, as well as a teaching hospital in the US.

In trials the system has been shown to help lower the cost of care - by eliminating unnecessary appointments and admissions. It also has been shown to foster more effective treatment – evident through measures such as a reduction in A&E admissions among participating patients - thanks to the patient's increased input in their care.

The government has pledged to give all patients in England the ability to access and share their medical records online within three years.

Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, founder of Patient Knows Best, said that patients need to be able to share their medical data with groups outside of the government sector if companies are to develop a new generation of healthcare apps.

”The law that we’re pushing for is a law that says ‘If you are going to practice medicine in the UK you must provide the patient with a machine readable copy of the data’,” he said, adding "then somebody else can compute on it".

”Then basically Virgin can come in and start saying ‘We looked at your exercise data from our gym and your cholesterol levels and we think you should have this exercise or diet plan'.

”Or Boots could say ‘We looked at your prescription from your GP and we think that these two drugs interact and that you’d be better off switching from that medication’.”

”The point is that innovators can come into healthcare who have traditionally been excluded.”

Image: Patients Know Best

FoodWiz

This is a smartphone app that allows users to scan barcodes on groceries to find out whether they are allergic to that foodstuff.

Users scan goods using the smartphone camera, causing the app to identify the product and reveal whether the user can safely consume it.

The app, which is available for the Apple iPhone and Android handsets,  doesn't require an internet connection as the database of more than 80,000 food and drink products sold in the UK is stored on the phone.

Multiple accounts can be created to allow checks for different allergy sufferers.

Image: FoodWiz.co/iTunes

Diabetes UK Tracker 

Managing diabetes can be a chore and this app is designed to make it easier for sufferers to log measures such as blood glucose, carbohydrates and calories.

The app allows users to log and track these measures and to view daily and weekly graphs to spot trends, as well as annotating days with notes and photos.

Users can get second opinions on their levels by sharing graphs and notes with clinicians, fellow sufferers or others. Details can also be shared via Facebook and Twitter.

It is available for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Image: Diabetes UK/iTunes</a>

Moodscope

Life is full of ups and downs but how do you know if your low mood is more than just a bad day?

Moodscope is a web app that allows users to rate and record their disposition each day.

Users rate their mood by clicking 20 double-sided playing cards, each of which represents a state of mind like ‘alert’ or ‘nervous’.

Moodscope rates users between 0 and 100 for various moods, and plots the results on a graph to allow their state of mind to be tracked over time and patterns to be examined.

The app can be set up to automatically email the user's score to buddies, along with a link to their mood graph so they can follow their progress. A buddy could be a friend, family member or health professional.

Image: Moodscope