healthcare technology

Those suffering from mental health problems have more options than ever before. And along with the tireless efforts of advocates and mental health professionals, technological advancements have also played a large role in combating mental illness.

From diagnosing mental health issues, to finding local treatment options and support groups, the internet allows us to deal with mental health in a way that previous generations would never have thought possible. And thanks to advances in smartphone technology, new methods such as online therapy are becoming more and more common.

According to the American Psychological Association, some studies indicate that “telemental health” and “asynchronous messaging therapy” can, in some cases, “be as effective as in-person therapy.”

Other studies have shown that online therapy often proves useful as a first step for those who are reluctant to get help, and can lead to patients to seeking out more intensive treatment methods.

For those who are interested in exploring the world of online therapy, we list here 4 websites which are a great place to start on your journey toward optimal mental health.

You can receive online therapy, counseling, and psychiatry with these sites that optimize your mental health.

1. ICOUNSELING.COM

2. MYTHERAPIST.COM

3. PRIDECOUNSELING.COM

4. REGAIN.US

read the original story at http://wordpress.futurism.com/telemental-sites-that-will-optimize-mental-health/

A lot of startups are starting to offer mobile tools to serve as “first lines of defense” for concerned consumers. A natural extension to patient education, they serve as the first line of diagnosis.

Dermatology is a particularly attractive area for this because of a national shortage of dermatologists in the United States.

Clinical decision support tool maker VisualDx officially launched Aysa, its first consumer-facing app, last month at Health 2.0 in San Francisco. The app allows users to upload pictures of skin lesions or rashes, enter some additional information about themselves and receive suggestions of what condition they might have and what actions to take next.

VisualDx stands out as a company that’s moving from provider-focused clinical decision support into the consumer world, which should lend it more credibility to its platform.

The app uses machine learning to identify skin conditions and make treatment suggestions.

services like this are crucial, even acknowledging their limitations, because people are already looking online for medical answers, so they might as well have the best ones possible.

CEO Dr. Art Papier in conversation with MobiHealthNews said 

“We know that everybody searches Google with their symptoms or they go to WebMD and use a symptom checker,” he said. “So the real question is how do you develop something that’s an educational symptom checker that’s safe? The art of this is to do a better job of educating so people know on a weekend, do I need to run to urgent care on a weekend, or can I get some better information that will help me make some decisions and then I’ll see the doctor later if necessary.”

read the original story at https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/visualdx-launches-aysa-consumer-facing-dermatology-app

The mobile health industry has been revolutionizing the way both doctors and patients approach medicine today. When it comes to addressing health issues, mobile health consumers are moving toward preventing disease and increasing fitness and wellness. Through fitness trackers and wearable devices, more patients are now focused on exercise and diet.

The company Research Now conducted a survey that looked at how mobile health applications and the mobile health industry is affecting patient care and physician workflow. Research Now polled a total of 1,000 mHealth app users and 500 medical professionals. The results show that 86 percent of healthcare professionals believe mobile health apps increase their knowledge on a patient’s medical condition.


Additionally, nearly half of surveyed providers – 46 percent – felt that mHealth apps actually strengthen their relationship with their patients. Three out of four polled medical care professionals – 76 percent – have suggested that mobile health tools assist patients with managing chronic medical conditions.

Additionally, three out of five surveyed physicians and medical staff help patients who are at high risk of developing serious health problems. As previously stated, fitness trackers can help patients exercise more regularly and lose weight, which would reduce their risk of heart disease.

Additionally, more than half of those surveyed believe that mHealth applications can help consumers who are healthy remain at an optimal level of health. Also, nearly half – 48 percent – of survey takers think that the technologies within the mobile health industry may be able to help patients who were recently discharged from a hospital make a better transition to home-based care.

Most importantly, nearly all survey takers – 96 percent – believe that mobile health apps “improve their quality of life.” In addition, the survey illustrates that users of mHealth tools already improve their wellness and lifestyle through these technologies. For example, 60 percent use the tools to monitor their workouts while nearly half – 49 percent – use apps to record their calorie intake.

more at : http://mhealthintelligence.com/news/96-of-consumers-say-mobile-health-industry-improves-life

First, check your pulse, then, open this app.

If it were that easy, we could all be stars of the Japanese TV drama as referenced in the Code Blue series. However, real life codes are usually all too hectic and stress inducing especially for the new graduating medical class that just started their intern year. Here, imedicalapps.com is reviewing the top iPhone “code” apps available on the market.

We should mention the obvious caveat — you should know how to handle code blue / ACLS scenarios without having to use an app or even without having to use the commonly used pamphlets people carry with them.  

That said — these apps can often times help you control the adrenaline that is flooding your veins in these high acuity settings.

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. 

A recent international survey by the McKinsey & Company consulting firm addresses some myths about consumer use of digital healthcare services.

Many healthcare executives believe that, due to the sensitive nature of medical care, patients don’t want to use digital services except in a few specific situations. Decision makers often cite relatively low usage of digital healthcare services. Results of this survey however reveal something quite different. 

The 5 myths debunked by this survey are as follows

Myth 1: People don’t want to use digital services for healthcareMyth 2: Only young people want to use digital services

More at http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/gallery/5-myths-about-consumer-use-of-digital-healthcare-services-48388-1.html

When it comes to designing, developing and building new mobile healthcare tools, many of the most successful ventures typically have one factor in common: accredited healthcare expertise.

Proof is evident in the foray the Mayo Clinic has made with mHealth technology, as well as other pilots and deployments led by the healthcare institution and providers.

"Our culture of learning, innovation, and the desire to find answers has allowed Mayo to remain at the forefront of health and wellness, and we want to extend this expertise to people anywhere," Paul Limburg, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions, said in an announcement. "We collaborated with and invested in Better to create a powerful way for people to connect with Mayo Clinic in their homes and communities, wherever they are."

Other top medical institutions are also finding success with mHealth initiatives. For instance, Steven J. Hardy, Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist at Children's National Health System in the District of Columbia, wants to engage families and patients in conversations about how they're managing illness and use mobile gaming as the tool to do so.

Speaking with FierceMobileHealthcare in an exclusive interview, Hardy discussed a pilot the hospital is conducting for children with sickle cell disease. The kids play a game on a mobile platform (in this case, an iPad) that helps them with an often-overlooked symptom of sickle cell disease--memory loss.

And a Harvard Innovation Lab startup aims to bolster patient treatment by enhancing coordination and communication among caregivers with an mHealth app that lets healthcare teams text, share images and videos and always have a patient list within reach.

Read more: http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/story/why-medical-expertise-must-have-mhealth-tech-development/2014-06-09

The disease activities of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) tend to fluctuate between visits to doctors, and a self-assessment tool can help patients accommodate to their current status at home.

The aim of the present study was to develop a novel modality to assess the disease activity of RA by a smartphone without the need to visit a doctor. Subjects and Methods: This study included 65 patients with RA, 63.1±11.9 years of age. The 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28) was measured for all participants at each clinic visit.

The patients assessed their status with the modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (mHAQ), a self-assessed tender joint count (sTJC), and a self-assessed swollen joint count (sSJC) in a smartphone application. The patients' trunk acceleration while walking was also measured with a smartphone application. The peak frequency, autocorrelation (AC) peak, and coefficient of variance of the acceleration peak intervals were calculated as the gait parameters

. 

Read the summarized  results at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24404820

Text Messaging (SMS) technology is widely adopted in developing countries.

Text message-based health surveys distributed to 6,694 Liberians during an Ebola outbreak were generally on par with baseline demographic data collected in a prior household survey, according to a study recently published in Nature Digital Medicine. Further, the text surveys suggested that women sought fewer hospital-based deliveries during the outbreak, a trend consistent with other retrospective studies that have been published since the outbreak.

The Ebola outbreak was, and in some areas continues to be, a test of public health infrastructure. In regard to maternal care in particular, the researchers noted that many communities perceived a reduction in care quality as practitioners were advised not to make physical contact patients espousing fluids whenever possible.

As such, a viable, real-time data collection system that is based on a technology widely adopted by residents can be a substantial boon to health systems facing crisis,

Why it matters 

Taken together, these findings would indicate that these text-based surveys could be an avenue toward more real-time data collection in developing countries gripped by outbreaks.

for more, read the original unedited article at https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/text-based-survey-offers-accurate-real-time-health-info-during-ebola-outbreak-study-says

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.

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

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.

The latest beta version of iOS 8 adds a pair of new health-tracking data points to the Health app and one of them won’t even need manual data entry or a wearable device if you have a newer iPhone.

Apple’s iOS 8 Health app can track dozens of health stats through other apps and devices, providing a full picture of your well-being. Now, it can track two more things and one of them can be measured by the iPhone itself.

San Diego-based Dexcom, a maker of continuous glucose monitors, has filed for a patent for a system that would integrate a smartphone with a Dexcom device, detailing some of the features such a device might have.

“The present embodiments harness a wide variety of capabilities of modern smartphones, and combine these capabilities with information from a continuous glucose monitor to provide diabetics and related people with more information than the continuous glucose monitor can provide by itself,” the patent application reads. “The increased information provides the diabetic with an increased likelihood of good diabetes management for better health.”

The patent is focused particularly on a “continuous analyte monitor”, and describes how continuous monitoring could connect with a phone’s built-in activity monitor, GPS, scheduling systems, contacts, camera, and voice activation.

Much of the functionality described in the patent has to do with collecting continuous blood sugar data and other data — like activity and location — simultaneously, so the user can retrospectively see what sorts of life events tend to lead to hypo- and hyperglycemic events. But the patent also suggests that the device might be able to take action in cases of low blood sugar.

The system could contact a doctor, caretaker, or parent by text or email in the event of a blood sugar drop. It could also trigger a push notification to the patient, either telling them to eat a meal, or just setting off a specialized alarm (an illustration in the patent shows a patient setting their low blood sugar alarm to “Low” by Flo Rida.) The system could also tie into the phone’s GPS and respond to low blood sugar by recommending nearby restaurants.

The patent also discusses how continuous glucose monitoring could be combined with food logging using the phone’s built-in camera. Users could take photos of their food, and the phone could tell them whether they should eat it, recommend that they eat only a portion, or calculate and display the change in blood sugar that food would create.

more at http://mobihealthnews.com/28829/dexcom-files-for-patent-for-smartphone-connected-continuous-glucose-monitoring/