M-HEALTH By PHARMAGEEK

After an initial diagnosis, diabetes sufferers often experience a period of shock when they learn that everything has to change. Turkish mobile operator, Turkcell, and agency R/GA London have created an app to make adjusting to the necessary life changes much easier.

 

Instead of trying to persuade sufferers to adopt entirely new habits, tools and behaviors to monitor the condition, "healthmetre" deploys Instragram, a tool many people already use and taps into behaviors that people already have.

 

 

R/GA designed healthmetre to be a more human way to manage diabetes and help patients develop new, more healthy habits in a way that feels natural and thereby, helping them reach a level of consistency.

 

 

The idea is to make using the app as simple as possible, helping people stay motivated, complying with treatment and keeping the lines of communication with medical staff open.

 

Diabetes is an increasing problem across the world and Turkey has been particularly affected. The most recent statistics (2014) from the International Diabetes Federation show that Turkey has the highest rate of the illness in Europe, with an incidence of 14.7%, much higher than countries like, for example, the U.K. (5.4%) or mid-ranked Germany (7.9%).

 

The results of the 18-month trial are highly encouraging. Treatment compliance increased by 54%. Blood sugar levels decreased by 27% and complication forecasts decreased by 37%.

more at http://www.fastcocreate.com/3047389/a-new-app-to-make-life-easier-for-diabetics-using-instagram

 

 

 

 

Via nrip, Rémy TESTON

A lack of additional benefits and ease of use emerged as the key factors for the acceptance of diabetes apps among patients aged 50 or older

Via Anna Niemeyer, Olivier Delannoy, Celine Sportisse

Today's mobile apps are helping diabetics aggregate blood sugar and nutritional data from multiple platforms and devices and logging data into central portals accessible anywhere, according to Steve Robinson, general manager of the Cloud Platform Services Division for IBM.

The apps and snap-on smartphone monitoring devices are letting physicians integrate biometric data from wearables into patient data and analyze patient data at fast speed, Robinson writes at InformationWeek. The benefits are just as extensive as the functionality being developed, he says

The gains include everything from simplifying records and improving doctor-patient conversations to gaining a holistic view of a diabetic's health. Doctors can "crunch and analyze patient data at rapid speeds to help identify patterns and predict future health and treatment needs," he writes.

"Mobile apps can help diabetes sufferers get ahead of their symptoms and live healthier, more carefree lives," Robinson says. 

eBrief | Advice for Healthcare Organizations Seeking to Centralize Patient Records, Decommission Legacy Systems

Health systems are transforming their foundations and infrastructures to cut costs and improve care. In this eBook, hospital leaders share challenges and tools to make systemwide decisions that can help boost quality care and outcomes. Download today!

Sign up for our FREE newsletter for more news like this sent to your inbox!

Diabetes tools have ranged from providing smartphone coaching that is helping diabetics living in low to modest socioeconomic communities manage their disease and improving their health, to a wearable, automated bionic pancreas for continuous glucose monitor and a software algorithm, according to a study at the New England Journal of Medicine.

In addition, mobile monitoring of diabetic employees can save more than $3,000 a year in healthcare costs, half of the average annual medical insurance cost for workers diagnosed with diabetes. 

Today's tools and cloud-based capabilities are reducing those costs while also driving innovation for disease management, Robinson says.

"Using cloud services, combined with the ease and convenience of mobile, new methods of managing this disease are being brought to patients around the world," he writes.

For more information:
- read the article

Related Articles:
Mobile monitoring tools can cut diabetes management costs in half
Smartphone-powered bionic pancreas outperforms traditional diabetes pump
Smartphone coaching can boost diabetic management, help reduce disease risks
Smartphone app aims for faster, more accurate, body fluid testing
Smartphones may be the next-gen blood test laboratory
Montefiore explores texting for diabetic teens, pre-op care

Via Celine Sportisse, DIRECT MEDICA by Webhelp, dbtmobile, Giuseppe Fattori, eMedToday

Your smartphone is not only your best friend, it's also become your personal trainer, coach, medical lab and maybe even your doctor.

"Digital health" has become a key focus for the technology industry, from modest startups' focus on apps to the biggest companies in the sector seeking to find ways to address key issues of health and wellness.

Apps that measure heart rate, blood pressure, glucose and other bodily functions are multiplying, while Google, Apple and Samsung have launched platforms that make it easier to integrate medical and health services.

"We've gotten to a point where with sensors either in the phone or wearables gather information that we couldn't do in the past without going to a medical center," says Gerry Purdy, analyst at Compass Intelligence.

"You can do the heart rate, mobile EKGs (electrocardiograms). Costs are coming down, and these sensors are becoming more socially acceptable."

The consultancy Rock Health estimates 143 digital health companies raised $2.3 billion in the first six months of 2014, already topping last year's amount.

Recent studies suggest that people who use connected devices to monitor health and fitness often do a better job of managing and preventing health problems.

A study led by the Center for Connected Health found that people who use mobile devices did a better job of lowering dangerous blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

A separate study published in the July 2014 issue of Health Affairs found that data collected by devices is not only useful for patients but can help doctors find better treatments.

"When linked to the rest of the available electronic data, patient-generated health data completes the big data picture of real people's needs, life beyond the health care system," said Amy Abernethy, a Duke University professor of medicine lead author of the study.

Some firms have even more ambitious plans for health technology.

Google, for example, is developing a connecting contract lens which can help monitor diabetics and has set up a new company called Calico to focus on health and well-being, hinting at cooperation with rivals such as Apple. And IBM is using its Watson supercomputer for medical purposes including finding the right cancer treatment.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-07-mobile-tech-reshaping-health-sector.html#jCp

Via nrip

After decades as a technological laggard, medicine has entered its data age. Mobile technologies, sensors, genome sequencing, and advances in analytic software now make it possible to capture vast amounts of information about our individual makeup and the environment around us. The sum of this information could transform medicine, turning a field aimed at treating the average patient into one that’s customized to each person while shifting more control and responsibility from doctors to patients.

The question is: can big data make health care better?

“There is a lot of data being gathered. That’s not enough,” says Ed Martin, interim director of the Information Services Unit at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. “It’s really about coming up with applications that make data actionable.”

The business opportunity in making sense of that data—potentially $300 billion to $450 billion a year, according to consultants McKinsey & Company—is driving well-established companies like Apple, Qualcomm, and IBM to invest in technologies from data-capturing smartphone apps to billion-dollar analytical systems. It’s feeding the rising enthusiasm for startups as well.

Venture capital firms like Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as the corporate venture funds of Google, Samsung, Merck, and others, have invested more than $3 billion in health-care information technology since the beginning of 2013—a rapid acceleration from previous years, according to data from Mercom Capital Group. 

Via nrip

Via nrip

Via Celine Sportisse

Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, Vol. 7, Issue 1 Jan. 2013.

El-Gayar, Timsina and Nawar.

ABSTRACT

Background:
Advancements in smartphone technology coupled with the proliferation of data connectivity has resulted in increased interest and unprecedented growth in mobile applications for diabetes self-management. The objective of this article is to determine, in a systematic review, whether diabetes applications have been helping patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes self-manage their condition and to identify issues necessary for large-scale adoption of such interventions.
Methods:
The review covers commercial applications available on the Apple App Store (as a representative of commercially available applications) and articles published in relevant databases covering a period fromJanuary 1995 to August 2012. The review included all applications supporting any diabetes self-management task where the patient is the primary actor.
Results:
Available applications support self-management tasks such as physical exercise, insulin dosage or medication, blood glucose testing, and diet. Other support tasks considered include decision support, notification/alert, tagging of input data, and integration with social media. The review points to the potential for mobile applications to have a positive impact on diabetes self-management. Analysis indicates that application usage is associated with improved attitudes favorable to diabetes self-management. Limitations of the applications include lack of personalized feedback; usability issues, particularly the ease of data entry; and integration with patients and electronic health records.
Conclusions:
Research into the adoption and use of user-centered and sociotechnical design principles is needed to improve usability, perceived usefulness, and, ultimately, adoption of the technology. Proliferation and efficacy of interventions involving mobile applications will benefit from a holistic approach that takes into account patients’ expectations and providers’ needs.

J Diabetes Sci Technol 2013;7(1):247–262    

Via rob halkes

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates everything from heart monitors to horse vaccines, will soon have its hands full with consumer health apps and devices.

 

The vast majority of the health apps you’ll find in Apple’s or Google’s app stores are harmless, like step counters and heart beat monitors. They’re non-clinical, non-actionable, and informational or motivational in nature.

 

But the next wave of biometric devices and apps might go further, measuring things like real-time blood pressure, blood glucose, and oxygen levels.

 More clinical apps

The FDA is charged with keeping watch on the safety and efficacy of consumer health products. Lately, that includes more clinical apps as well as devices you might buy at the drugstore, like a home glucose testing kit.

 

“It’s these apps that the FDA says it will regulate,” David Bates of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Physicians Organization told VentureBeat in June. These apps will have to go through the full 510(k) process,” he said.

 

Dr. Bates chaired a group to advise the FDA on how to review health apps for approval, and on how the FDA should advise developers.

“It was intended to help them think through the risk factors involved with these products and then give guidance on how to stay within the guidelines,” he said.

 

“The device makers were asking from some guidance from The FDA on what types of things would be accepted and what wouldn’t,” Bates said.

Bates believes the FDA wants to use a light regulatory touch when looking at new medical devices. “The FDA definitely wants innovation to continue in clinical devices,” he said. “In general the FDA knows that the vast majority of apps are just informational.”

 

The FDA’s final guidance focuses on a small subset of mobile apps that present a greater risk to patients if they do not work as intended.

 

Health apps go mainstream

The big software companies (Apple, Google, and Samsung) have brought attention to, and lent credibility to, apps and devices that do more than count steps. These companies are building large cloud platforms designed to collect health data from all sorts of health apps and devices.

 

more at http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/21/health-apps-are-changing-so-must-the-fda/

 

Via nrip, Clara Hamelin