Exco InTouch has always believed that the solution to effective patient engagement was the use of ubiquitous technologies such as the cell phone. It is interesting to see that this philosophy is now being readily adopted by the mHealth arena, where mobile technologies are being used in some interesting and innovative ways, a few which caught our eye, are summarized below:
This is your Medication calling.
Wireless technology is now being embedded into the caps of medicine bottles to aid medication compliance. When it is time to take your medication, the Glow Caps system from Vitality, glows and triggers a reminder light. If you ignore the light for an hour, the cap then plays a ring tone. If after two hours you still have not taken your medication, you then receive an automated call or text message reminding you to take your medication.
Do you want Chips with that?
Raisin from Novartis is an ingestible microchip system, where a tiny chip is embedded inside a pill. When the pill is taken and the chip hits stomach acid, it triggers an electric charge that is detected by a patch worn by the patient. The patch time-stamps the event, takes a few vital signs, and sends the data via the patients' 'mobile phone to their healthcareprovider. Miss a dose? Then the electric charge will fail to trigger, and time stamped data is not sent, alerting the Health care provider to potential non-compliance. In a pilot study this technology has been shown to increase compliance rates from 30 percent to 80 percent in just 6 months.
Just take a Photo and the Doctor will see you.
George Washington University Hospital is undertaking a 6 month study to determine how accurately emergency doctors and physician assistants could diagnose wounds from patient-generated cell phone images. In the study researchers recruit people who have arrived at the hospital with cuts, skin infections, rashes and other flesh wounds. Patients use their own camera phones to document their injuries. After filling out a questionnaire about their medical history and symptoms, they send the images to the doctors who will look at their picture along with the questionnaire and make a diagnosis. The doctor then sees the patient to see if the cell phone diagnosis was accurate. The initial results are very encouraging with 90 percent of diagnoses being deemed as accurate.
Texting for Health information.
It is not only pharma companies who are realising the power of the mobile space, the US governments Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been inviting Americans to opt in for text messages about a variety of health topics. The program is part of an overall effort to understand how short-form media can influence health behaviour and how even small bites of health information can be optimized for a better patient experience. To date 91% of participants surveyed said the text messages they received were easy to understand., which is a big win for the departments health literacy program.
Sources:
http://www.vitality.net/glowcaps_howglowcapswork.html
http://healthed.typepad.com/healthed-blog/2010/06/finding-pharma-on-your-mobile-device-early-opportunities-for-exploration.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/30/AR2010083003939.html?hpid=sec-health
