Five apps that pave the way for DIY healthcare
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ntSmartphone and web apps are making healthcare cheaper and more effective – reducing visits to the doctors and providing patients with diagnoses and medical advice in their own home.
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ntApps designed to support healthcare are on the rise. More than one third of physicians questioned by IT industry association CompTIA last year said that they used telemedicine technology for patient consultations, while almost 40 per cent used medical apps on their smartphones every day.
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ntThis week the UK health secretary Andrew Lansley told TechRepublic that doctors will increasingly u201cprescribeu201d telemedicine web and mobile apps to patients during consultations.
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ntu201dThe beauty of this technology is that it’s tremendously empowering,u201d he said.
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ntu201dWe have had information prescriptions in the NHS in the past, but they have tended to be text and paper-based. Ideally in due course we will arrive at a place where patients own their own records, where they have access to a whole ecology of apps and information, and with the help of their clinicians can navigate to what works for them.u201d
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ntTo discover the online apps that patients find most useful the Department of Health asked the public to nominate their favourite health apps. Here are some of the most popular apps from that contest, which are changing the way healthcare is being delivered.
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ntImage: OSirix/iTunes
ntFlorence
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ntMost people carry around a mobile phone, making it a perfect tool for patients to use to report on their health.
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ntThat’s the thinking behind u201cFlou201d, an online service name after the 19th century nurse Florence Nightingale.
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ntThe 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.
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ntFlo 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.
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ntBy 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 u00a31,500.
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ntFlo 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.
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ntMore than 1,000 patients and tens of healthcare teams in the UK are using Flo.
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ntA Flo smartphone app is also being developed.
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ntImage: NHSsimple/YouTube.com
ntPatients Know Best
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ntPatients Know Best allows patients to access and update medical records online, as well as working with their doctor to manage their healthcare.
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ntOnce 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.
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ntPKB 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.
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ntThe 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.
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ntIn 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 u2013 evident through measures such as a reduction in A&E admissions among participating patients – thanks to the patient’s increased input in their care.
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ntThe government has pledged to give all patients in England the ability to access and share their medical records online within three years.
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ntDr 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.
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ntu201dThe law that we’re pushing for is a law that says u2018If you are going to practice medicine in the UK you must provide the patient with a machine readable copy of the data’,u201d he said, adding “then somebody else can compute on it”.
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ntu201dThen basically Virgin can come in and start saying u2018We looked at your exercise data from our gym and your cholesterol levels and we think you should have this exercise or diet plan’.
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ntu201dOr Boots could say u2018We 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’.u201d
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ntu201dThe point is that innovators can come into healthcare who have traditionally been excluded.u201d
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ntImage: Patients Know Best
ntFoodWiz
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ntThis is a smartphone app that allows users to scan barcodes on groceries to find out whether they are allergic to that foodstuff.
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ntUsers scan goods using the smartphone camera, causing the app to identify the product and reveal whether the user can safely consume it.
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ntThe 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.
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ntMultiple accounts can be created to allow checks for different allergy sufferers.
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ntImage: FoodWiz.co/iTunes
ntDiabetes UK Tracker
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ntManaging 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.
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ntThe 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.
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ntUsers 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.
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ntIt is available for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
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ntImage: Diabetes UK/iTunes
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ntMoodscope
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ntLife is full of ups and downs but how do you know if your low mood is more than just a bad day?
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ntMoodscope is a web app that allows users to rate and record their disposition each day.
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ntUsers rate their mood by clicking 20 double-sided playing cards, each of which represents a state of mind like u2018alert’ or u2018nervous’.
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ntMoodscope 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.
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ntThe 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.
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ntImage: Moodscope
