Mobile technologies have had a major impact on American life.
We now get our news, manage our calendars, shop, and connect with friends and family
on tiny computers we keep in our pockets. And smart phones are ubiquitous.
Leveraging smart phone technology to improve healthcare has become a kind of
holy grail; finding an intersection between the fields of medicine and mobile technology.
There are several factors that make this match so intriguing:
chronic diseases need to be managed on a daily basis, smart phones are a unique
platform to reach patients several times a day, and advances in technology make
this process more directly applicable to the medical field. Diabetes is, indeed, a good example of a chronic disease that requires daily and even
hourly management. When people with both type 1 & 2 diabetes eat healthier
and exercise they have improved treatment outcomes. Smart phone applications
can help track food intake and manage activities that ultimately lead to
healthy lifestyles.
Beyond this, there are some companies that are trying to
promote healthy lifestyles and keep patients connected with the physicians more
regularly. Companies like Welldoc are keeping
people with diabetes in better health by treating the whole patient from their mobile
device – and sending the results to their doctor. This allows physicians to
track things like dietary habits and even blood sugar. In this way, the
physician knows in real time if the patient is in need of further intervention.
As medicine and mobile technologies combine their common
interest, there is a unique opportunity to personalize medicine by treating the person, as well as improve
medical research by collecting big data. It will be interesting to see what the
future brings and whether predictive modeling can be applied to successfully improve
treatment outcomes; not just for diabetes but for all chronic diseases.
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