Smart Phones Put Doctors in Women's Hands
Technology is making our lives more interconnected. We can surf the Internet for information on our terms, get our email on our smart phone, and even find turn-by-turn directions to some distant location with the click of a button.
In a recent pilot study, Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) cancer experts provide breast cancer patients with mobile devices loaded with step-by-step guides to help manage their treatments. Patients track symptoms as they occurred and, if needed, get on-demand advice from their doctor, putting him or her literally in the palm of their hands.
Dr. Doug Post at the OSUMC James Comprehensive Cancer Center helped develop the program. He says if a patient is having problems with fatigue, a video pops up on the smart phone for the patients to watch on how to talk to their doctor about their fatigue. Since breast cancer patients can often go two or three weeks between treatments, many women forget or downplay pain, fatigue and depression.The device helps the women track the symptoms as they occur so doctors can better customize care for each patient. Before each office visit, Physicians received printouts of patients’ symptoms based on their devices’ tracking function.
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Hi Lynnette - Thanks for sharing information on this important research. It seems like it would be extremely helpful for a breast cancer patient to be able to access a mobile device with guides to manage their treatment. It would then be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter what. That would give a wonderful sense of security and support, so critical after this type of diagnosis. And the feedback and interaction with the physician to customize treatment is invaluable.
Please keep us posted as this develops further.
Take good care,
Pat
Very interesting article, and a smart way to integrate new technology into a real-world application. Thanks for the info.