Nothing Better to Increase Adherence Like Rewards

A new smartphone app has be launched to improve medication adherence. The app uses a system of reward points that can be used to obtain real prizes. The app also uses games and educational facts to improve medication adherence. This new app offers improvement in helping prevent the $290 billion in healthcare spending that is brought about from medication non adherence. The company who invented the app, HealthPrizes, looked at behavioral economics, gaming dynamics, and consumer marketing to help promote their product and its ability to improve medication adherence. The app was recently used in a study with COPD and asthma patients showing high engagement rates. 


By improving medication adherence, health problems will most likely be reduced and clinical outcomes improved. There will be less doctor visits and reduced costs for medical visits. Overall this will decrease the amount of unnecessary health care spending. Lastly, if medication adherence improves quality of life improves which is ideally what every patient is looking for from taking medication. 


http://medgadget.com/2011/11/healthprize-smartphone-app-for-improving-drug-compliance-released.html

I've Fallen, and I Can't Get Up

Everyone has seen those panic buttons on t.v. however, has anyone ever wondered what happens if the person becomes unconscious and can not press the button. Well it did happen and some students at Northeastern University developed the next generation medical alert bracelet. It is able to detect the acceleration of a fall and able to distinguish it from other activities like a high five using its accelerometer. It also has microcontroller, a zigbee chip, custom pulse oximeter and integrated them into a single point fall detection system with biometric sensing. This capability is essential in whether someone could be saved or end up dead depending on the condition. Ultimately affecting the biggest medical outcome...LIFE!

http://medgadget.com/2010/04/college_students_invent_nextgeneration_medical_alert_bracelet.html

CardioDefender! Sounds like a Super Hero...

Everist Genomics has come out with a smartphone ECG that can provide continuous readings throughout the day. Its most beneficial characteristic is its ability to detect arrhythmias that might not be able to be detected in an office visit. Once detected on the smartphone, the information can be sent to the clinician via email or by other electronic means. This is a great way for doctors to help prevent complications for arrhythmias. My grandmother actually suffers from arrhythmias and this would be great for her because hers are usually triggered by too much activity. If she would wear this watch, all the information can be sent to her primary physician who can look at the ECG and correlate what activities exacerbate the problem through inquisition of her activities at the time of the abnormal heart rhythm.

Through all this prevention of additional health costs, health problems, and complications can be accomplished. Most of all it can help my grandmother with complying to the avoidance of the exacerbating factors which we tell her to avoid all the time.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/everist-genomics-to-launch-cardiodefender-worlds-only-mobile-ecg-system-that-delivers-real-time-beat-by-beat-quantitative-heart-monitoring-data-to-physicians-2011-11-09

What can social networking do for you?

Researchers at the University of Washington are trying to help cancer patients with an online system called HealthWeaver. The program, HealthWeaver, includes a social networking tool that aims to help cancer patients manage information about their healthcare, have their questions answered and create a network with others who can aid them in their treatment. It allows these cancer patients to ask for assistance with daily activities that they now can not do anymore without help. 


The social networking aspect of it allows patients to interact with others in other parts of the country or maybe even world who are going through the same thing. Other programs like HealthWeaver include CaringBridge and Lotsa Helping Hands. What makes HealthWeaver a little different is that it is not just a social networking tool. It also gives the user the capability to post how their feelings about their treatment or even how they are feeling that day and updates about their health. The creators of this program are now trying to create a mobile application. 


This is similar to James' post about the family who had the child diagnosed with that rare disorder who turned to social networking and found other families going through the same situation. However, this program offers a little more. This program just shows how social media can improve health outcomes. It does not necessarily help cure the cancer the patient has, but does help with improving patients quality of life and helps them better manage and understand their illness. An example as learned in some of my classes, some cancer patients become depressed when diagnosed, but with this program it may help prevent that. More and more programs like this are being developed and I believe it will greatly improve the healthcare field one way or another. 


http://cbpowell.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/cnn-covers-healthweaver-my-teams-software-for-cancer-patients/

iMeds Changes Healthcare Field

According to Ben Thompson, CEO of Proteus Biomedical, iMeds is going to be bigger than iTunes. That is a very bold statement to make with out any evidence of its efficacy in the actual patient population. It will be a very useful tool in helping show patient adherence, as well as the therapeutic effect of a medication, but to go as far as that statement is a little ambitious. As stated in my previous blog post, electronics is the best way to view patient adherence rather than go based on what the patient tells you or whats gathered by the clinician.

Right now they are testing the iMeds "Raisin" with hypertensive, heart failure, and tuberculosis patients. The Raisin actually runs on electricity produced by the patients stomach acid. The second part of the medication, the patch, actually detects the electric charge generated. The patch electronically records when the patient ingested the pill, as well as vital signs. After the patch detects these signs it sends the information electronically to the patients mobile phone and to the internet where caregivers can analyze it.

One problem that can be seen with this is that patients have to actually take their medication. A lot of medications actually forego getting picked up from the pharmacy do many reasons, including cost. Therefore, if patients don't pick up their medications due to cost, they will not want to pay for the additional cost of this "Raisin". This just leads back to the main intervention that should take place being pharmacists and MTM services to explain the importance of taking their medication and disease prevention. Even though there can be some fallbacks, overall this technology is very beneficial for the healthcare field.

http://mobihealthnews.com/5150/tedmed-imeds-will-be-bigger-than-itunes/

Patients' Untold Stories

Most healthcare professionals know that patients do not completely tell them the truth about adhering to their medication regimen. There are steps done to help patients become better with medication adherence. However, here is some evidence that shows even when patients seem to be truthful in communicating their adherence they are not telling the truth. Even when the healthcare professional tries to intervene and increase adherence for patients, the clinician reporting of adherence doesn't provide accurate measurement. The best way to measure adherence is through electronic monitoring. The following study came to find these results. As discussed in class, Proteus Biomedical has come out with a product to help perform this tasks of monitoring adherence called the Raisin ingestible drug sensors and monitoring system.

Here is the study: http://jerryfahrni.com/2011/10/accurate-assessment-of-adherence-man-vs-machine-abstract/

MTM breakthrough...

VitaDock system is a system for healthcare professionals to use and for patients themselves to use at home for self management of blood sugar, blood pressure, body weight and body temperature. It is known to be the first mobile connected thermometer. 


The iOS it has allows it to capture crucial data and separate the four different measuring modules. Not only keep data of all the above mentioned but it provides graphs and statistics. Whats even more cool about it is that more than one person (up to 4) has the ability to use the same device, which makes it more worthwhile for people to use if they are worried about the cost. The data that is captured on the device can be given to physicians or family members through email. I believe this makes it easier for physicians to keep track of their patients. Also, with the ability to provide the information to family members may put their minds at ease if they know their loved one is doing alright. This could be especially useful in the field of pharmacy to better provide MTM services before the patient even comes in. Pharmacists could be able to review the stats and data and know what to counsel the patient on before they even step foot through the door. The only thing i don't know is if it is available in the U.S. because it is sold through the German T-Mobile website.

http://medgadget.com/2011/10/vitadock-family-captures-vital-data-on-your-iphone-or-ipad.html

Vital Technology

"Philips has introduced a new patient monitor, the IntelliVue MX800, that provides common vital sign data, but that can also display information coming from any other hospital database."


This is ridiculous! This system allows health care professionals  to easily view patient data from electronic medical records, imaging studies and other clinical applications. This offers in helping to save clinicians time and aid in clinical decision making at the point of care. This allows for the earliest possible medical intervention. This is extremely important with the new medical insurance that will only provide reimbursement for a procedure/intervention if it is initial occurrence, they will not reimburse for the cost if the patient returns within 30 days from complications or same problems from the existing condition. 


Due to the fact this system uses the industry standard informatics platform it doesn't change the existing hospital environment. Therefore, this will be beneficial in preventing patients unnecessary returns to the hospital. 


http://medgadget.com/2010/10/philips_intellivue_mx800_brings_patient_data_to_one_screen.html

Making Healthcare a True Daily Double

   One of my favorite shows growing up and still to this day is Jeopardy. Back in February of 2011, top Jeopardy contestants were competing against a highly intelligent artificial intelligence computer software program from IBM. The program, Watson, turned out to be too much for the human contestants and beat them.
   From this ability to answer random trivia questions, difficult daily doubles, and final jeopardy questions IBM believes that this software could use its "talents" to benefit the healthcare industry. The software, Watson, would be able to revolutionize the healthcare industry by having the ability to quickly search through medical records, clinical documents, and research information for specific answers to help benefit both doctors and patients.
   Therefore, it can easily be seen how this software can revolutionize the healthcare industry. The possibilities are endless, but I am going to leave you with one thing related to the field of pharmacy. Someday patients medical records will be able to be accessed from a retail pharmacy, the day this becomes possible questions about the patient may be able to be answered in seconds using this software. This could help revolutionize the field of pharmacy and help promote our professions ability to efficiently manage medication therapy. 


http://medgadget.com/2011/02/ibm_watson_could_revolutionize_healthcare.html

Big Brother is Watching: No Sick Day For You!

Most students waking up during the week have that first initial thought, "I don't want to go to school". As most people know it does not only pertain to students, it pertains to a large population of the workforce. Little do people know, taking those sick days may be harder to take in the near future. 

Across the globe that is exactly what they are doing in Malaysia. Malaysians are apparently infamous for abusing their sick days. Due to a new technology and a new law put in place, the ability for Malaysians to obtain their sick leave will no longer be easy. I would say not being easy is an understatement. To manage their employees sick leave, the government will be using a USB device that detects antibodies and cortisol in their saliva to confirm that they are sick. The USB is called SickVerify and it has already started emerging in businesses since August. 

The USB SickVerify uses a saliva sample to to determine if the person was really sick during the time period they claimed to be sick. To use the USB a person takes a small piece of cottonwool and adds their saliva. It is inserted into a laptop/computer through the USB port and in just 3 minutes the results are displayed. 

My thoughts are how long before the United States starts using this device in their workforce or even in schools to deter employees and students from skipping school or work. As James brought up in class today, just another tool to help big brother watch you or is it for the benefit of the workforce to decrease false sick days and increase productivity.

http://medgadget.com/2011/04/usb_device_helps_manage_employee_sick_leave.html