A few examples of mHealth apps that use technology in novel ways to enhance chronic pulmonary disease self-management are Wizdy (LifeGuard Games, Inc., Brighton, MA); The Wizdy Pets app is designed to help children with asthma understand their disease by learning about asthma triggers and the importance of taking medications. It accomplishes this via a game that children play involving taking care of a fire-breathing dragon “pet” that has asthma. Care TRx (Gecko Health Innovations, Inc., Cambridge, MA), and Propeller Health (Propeller Health, Madison, WI) have developed apps for monitoring medication utilization. Care TRx and Propeller Health apps work in conjunction with Bluetooth-enabled sensors that attach to standard inhaler medications …show more content…
They have partnered with an entity called Inspire (Princeton, NJ), which is an online patient engagement platform. They offer an easy to use website, (http://www.inspire.com/groups/asthma-and-allergy-foundation-of-america/) where patients and other various stakeholders can communicate and network to provide on line support and educational resources. Another online community focused on asthma is the AsthmaCommunityNetwork (http://www.asthmacommunitynetwork.org), sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Allies Against Asthma program, and the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. nonprofit organization. The is an educational resource opportunity to provide asthma care, asthma management plans and discussion forums for dissemination of educational information. The COPD Foundation (http://www.copdfoundation.org) created an integrated patient and physician registry called COPD360 and sponsored by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP (Wilmington, DE). This offers an opportunity to identify new COPD treatments, which is the largest effort in COPD that includes patient-centered …show more content…
Patients are becoming armed with devices that can empower, monitor, track and even measure their disease progression creating interventions when necessary to optimize the health and response time to disease. New devices and tools technology into a smartphone for example, have the potential to become an extension of a patient’s health care provider and already change the way in which patients interact with the medical system. These various devices can allow public health officials to better monitor and screen for diseases in large populations and ultimately help improve preventive strategies and access to care for millions of Americans. This is all a critical part of improving outcomes for patients going forward.
As pharmacists we are aware that the management of COPD is multi-pronged approach. Treatment focuses on monitoring changes and relieving symptoms, improving function/exercise tolerance and ongoing vigilance. There exists however, variables needed to assess and monitor the disease, reduce risk factors, such as smoking and air pollution, stabilize care to prevent disease progression and manage exacerbations and comorbid conditions. This could not be accomplished without the infusion of the healthcare technologies. (17).
Asthma is one of the most prevalent non-communicable chronic respiratory conditions occurring throughout the lifespan.
The use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry has exploded in the last ten years. Mobile health or mHealth, provides an entire new aspect of the relationship between patients and their doctors and other medical providers. Mobile devices place important and critical information into a medical professional’s hands in real-time. Doctors can monitor a patient’s condition more frequently, allowing them to make better and more informed decisions and diagnoses.
Mhealth has reached the poorest of communities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). More than 9 million patients email their physician in 2009 (Digital Health Care, 2010), because patients’ busy lifestyles do not allow time for an office visit for non-emergent health conditions. . In recent years, the expansion of mobile health (mhealth) technologies, including health text messaging, mobile phone applications, remote monitoring, and portable sensors, have changed the way health care is being delivered in the U.S. and globally (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). Patients like the convenience of communicating with his or her physician through advanced technology.
As consumers utilize smartphones, tablets, and other devices for other functions like social media and email, they are starting to look at these features to assist them with their healthcare. Mobile body area network devices will be a growing trend in the coming years as a way to get patients engaged in their healthcare and also to give providers routine updates on the status of patients with chronic conditions. As DeGaspari (2014) indicates, these devices can lead to improved functionality for other devices used in hospitals, such as sensors for monitoring patients that might get up and wander or be a fall risk. Telemedicine will continue to grow as payers, providers, and patients all start to realize the mutual benefits that can be
Asthma is a respiratory disease that many people deal with every single day. “According to World Health Organization, approximately 180,000 people die from asthma each year.” (Jardins and Burton 187) Most people never think of asthma as a life threatening disease, but it can be crucial. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with this disease. Asthma is a severe breathing problem that has many complications that is dealt with daily like shortness of breath, chronic cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath, my main focus is childhood asthma, allergic asthma, and medication to treat asthma.
Millions of individuals suffer and die from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) each year in our nation. Currently, there is no cure for COPD; therefore, the most beneficial goal for these patients is to provide enhanced quality of life that includes limited admissions to the hospital setting and decreased exacerbations. Management of this disease process through proper patient education and multidisciplinary collaboration improves a COPD patient’s ability to maintain a healthier state of life as well as decrease their chance of a costly hospital readmission (Chamberlain, Lau, Siracuse, 2017).
Discuss the prevalence of asthma in certain patient populations that you might see in primary care. Asthma is chronic airway inflammation disorder that is characterized by persistent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and non-productive cough, mainly at night and in the early morning. The inflammation of the airway results from physical, chemical, and pharmacologic stimulus, which causes bronchial hyper-responsiveness, constriction of the airways, edema of airway wall, and chronic airway remodeling (Cash, 2014). Asthma occurs at all ages, with about 50% of all cases developing during childhood and another 30% before age 40. In the United States, it is estimated that 25 million people have asthma and the prevalence continues to increase (McCance, & Huether, 2014). Previously, asthma was considered
mHealth has the potential to change every aspect of the traditional health care system. It could provide a more effective health care delivery system and be cost saving with relatively limited resources. For consumers, mHealth proposes the potential of improved convenience, more active involvment in their own care, and greater personalization. For clinicians, mHealth could lead to more accurate, improved patient care and lesser demand of their time. Nevertheless, mHealth is currently between the early adopters and early majority, the chasm. To cross this chasm, a top-down strategy is needed to match mHealth’s bottom-up approach by app developers. mHealth stakeholders need to provide a roadmap for implementation that confirms its benefits to
S. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 as a worldwide burden of disease according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization (Pauwels, 2012). Yet; COPD fails to receive adequate attention from the health care community and government officials (Pauwels, 2012). In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientist encouraged the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) (Pauwels, 2012). GOLD’s intention is to bring awareness to individuals who treat COPD and the individuals who suffer and die every year due to the complications from the disease. GOLD used a consensus report for this study and updates the version to reflect on vital changes, stages and signs of COPD. The goals for GOLD are to improve management; and prevention of COPD through effort of people involved in all areas of healthcare and the policies of health care, including worldwide involvement. One strategy to help achieve the objectives of GOLD is to provide health care to workers, health care authorities, and the general public with state-of-the-art information about COPD and specific recommendations on the most appropriate management and prevention strategies (Pauwels,
There have been huge leaps and bounds in the delivery of health care as a result of incorporation of information technology, creating a wider, more cost effective coverage in health care. These growths cuts across all aspects of the system, ranging from patient care, to hospital maintenance, improvement in data processing, and more. The For example, there are apps that can be installed on smart phones that assist in diagnosis and act as virtual doctors, others also grants patients access to doctors on-line, for example, Doctor-on-Demand, an app which gives access to a video visit with a board certified medical professional, all from the comfort of your
Asthma is a respiratory chronic disorder affecting about twenty six million people, both children and adults, in the US. About seven million children suffer from this disease. This disease has a complex pathophysiology including airflow obstruction, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and inflammation. Factors that stimulate asthma attacks include exercise, gastroesophageal reflux, environmental allergens, obesity, tobacco smoke, NSAID use, chronic rhinitis or sinusitis, viral infections of respiratory system such as rhinovirus (Lemanske, Jackson and Gangnon), irritants, emotional stress, and perinatal factors such as prematurity.
Asthma is one lifestyle disease that affects the body’s systems greatly. In the year of 2004/05 asthma was a multi-million dollar industry at $606 million. In 2007/08 asthma prevalence is responsible for over 9.9% of the population in Australia, which is almost 2,
Some of the issues faced by the patient that lead to their early termination from the study includes: frequent appointments, long study duration, greater travel time and travel cost (Zweban, Fucito & O’ Malley, 2013). A poor retention rate is a clear threat to the validity of clinical trial; furthermore, it may increase the duration time of the study causing financial problems. Pharmaceutical companies lose up to $8 million in sales for each day of delay in getting a drug to the market (Cutting Edge Information, 2005). The use of smartphones can help sponsors to maintain high participation rate. The issues of frequent appointments and inconvenience of travel can be solved through smartphones. Patients will have fewer face-to-face meetings, as smartphone will be the means to collect and share the patient data. One such app being used by the patients on a smartphone is the Dario; this app provides real time sharing of blood glucose and helps in management of diabetes. The use of health apps on smartphones will also help in eradicating the barrier of disconnection between the patients and the researcher. These apps can boost the patients’ satisfaction, which in turn can help in increasing the retention rate of the
The days are gone when a doctor walked into a patient's room and grabbed the paper chart at the end of his bed to check his medical history. Increasingly, they offer real-time care monitoring, allowing users to share health data with a doctor from a Smartphone. Some apps even allow doctors to virtually assess, diagnose and treat patients without ever having them leave home.
The chronic condition selected by this author to be managed with the chronic care model is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The Chronic Care Model (CCM) is a research-based method of managing chronic illness with an emphasis on the dissemination of information and disease management strategies (Nickitas, Middaugh, & Aries, 2011, p. 320). A thorough educational approach to managing the symptoms of COPD has the potential to help patients avoid exacerbations by implementing self-management strategies. This fits with the key concepts of the CCM. According to Nash (2016), the CCM enables the creation of “well prepared, proactive clinical teams by using clinical information systems, decision support,
A procedure that in the past ten years with technology and advancements in medicine is now considered a routine outpatient procedure. Not long ago, people started wearing wristbands that recorded the number of steps they took, their heart rates and sleep cycles. But if the now-ubiquitous bands and accompanying apps that stored biorhythms started out as novelties, they paved the way for a new generation of gadgets that have become serious tools to improve health care delivery and outcomes. These newfangled contraptions will change how and where care is delivered and will enable providers to stay continuously connected with patients wherever they may be — or at least connected to the devices that indicate whether a patient is abiding by prescription