Patients using handelds for health monitoring

[NMM]

From looking at the posts in the diabetes thread it seems handhelds can be of great use to patients as well as doctors.

Are there any other types of program that people use for monitoring their own health issues?

Anyone use any of these or know of any more:

Stat Cardiac risk calculator

Diet Assistant

MenstualTrac from catsmeowsoftware.com

Chris

[williepalm]

Yes, there are tons of them actually.
Just take your own sweet time on screening them
http://www.palmgear.com/software/answer_category.cfm?categoryIDs=120

[StatCoder.com]

I would be careful to differentiate applications that are designed for patients vs. the ones designed for clinicians. Most medical applications are tools for clinicians, designed with some fund of knowledge assumed.

For example, STAT Cholesterol (successor to STAT Cardiac Risk, mentioned above, www.statcoder.com (http://www.statcoder.com/) ) calculates Framingham Risk for patients who do not have any cardiac symptoms and who have not had any treatment of risk factors. It can easily be misinterpereted by patients who have recently modified their risk factors (i.e. smoking, cholesterol) to assume that their risk suddenly dropped by a significant amount.

Anyone can download these applications just like anyone can purchase a stethescope, however, it probably isn't appropriate to routinely beam these programs to all PDA-yielding patients. Also, I would not advise that this kind of software be featured on patient-oriented websites.

Lastly, as a developer of free software, I am happy to answer email inquiries about my software from clinicians anywhere in the world, however, I don't answer inquiries about my clinical software when used by non-clinicians.

Andre Chen, MD

[NMM]

I agree entirely Andre. It must be tempting for patients to use products designed for physicians themselves.

The reason I mention Stat Cardiac Risk was that I have heard of GPs using it to help explain the risks to patients. If the patient can see how their risks change if they are able to stop smoking or lose weight it may help reinforce the doctors advice. When the patient goes back later and can use the program again with the doctor they can see how their weight loss/stopping smoking/controlled BP/etc has reduced their risk.

Chris

[Medcat99]

I strongly agree with Andre's sentiments. It's not that most doctors don't want patient to become educated about their disease processes. On the contrary, my life would be much easier if my patients took a greater ownership in their various afflictions. But, at the same time, medical software is really designed for medically educated people. Most of what is produced out there in terms of "medical calculators" assumes that the person using the software understands it's inherent clinical limitations. In other words, there are very few "rules" in medicine that you can apply to every patient you encounter; patients are each individualized and can't always be easily plugged into formulas. I have the same frustrations when patients bring in internet articles describing the latest and greatest medical advances. Even when the information is valid (and it frequently is not), most of it is based on medical studies with their own inherent limitations .
If we are talking about software that, say, keeps a patient's glucose logs or can chart past medical problems, or keeps a log of the medications a patient is taking, this information could be very valuable to both the clinician and the patient. But, I strongly advise against purchasing medical textbooks and calculators for the reasons above.

[StatCoder.com]

Originally posted by NMM
how their risks change if they are able to stop smoking or lose weight it may help reinforce the doctors advice. When the patient goes back later and can use the program again with the doctor they can see how their weight loss/stopping smoking/controlled BP/etc has reduced their risk.



Actually, Framingham Risk Scores are not valid when used this way. A person's cardiac risk does not go down immediately after risk factor modification. It certainly does not go down to the level that the Framingham Risk Score would predict since this score is for asymptomatic people before any intervention. It would probably take years for someone's risk to go down and it probably would never go down to the level of a person who never had that risk (smoking, etc.).

What I say to the patient is something like "A person your age and sex with your numbers and who doesn't smoke, has an X percent chance of developing coronary heart disease within the next decade." This tells them how much excess risk that they have but doesn't say that they will lower their risk to that level if they stop smoking because that isn't true.

[LanMan]

I have a different question. I am a new father and would like a program that tracks my family's medical "chart". I would like to track physician visits, weight/height, meds, symptoms, etc. Can anyone give me some direction on what I might be able to use? Do any of you recommend such a program to your patients? I have looked at the freeware PatientTracker, but it seems to be geared toward physicians and would not suit my needs.

Thanks

[LanMan]

BTW: Shots 2003 looks like a very good program for parents to have available.

[GoCats]

Shots 2003 is a good program; again, it's probably geared more toward health professionals, but it's one that might be beneficial for parents to have as well. There are a couple of patient-oriented medical tracking apps out there; I can't recall names off the top of my head, but try searching palmgear of freewarepalm. I seem to recall seeing a few there.

[Unregistered]

I've used the Diet & Exercise Assistant... It can be a useful tool for people who are disciplined about keeping track of exactly what they eat.

In addition, I do think the patient should have some background in healthy eating and nutrition to begin with BEFORE using the application. The application will keep track of the calories, carbs, protein, and fat in the foods that patients eat, but it doesn't explain how to cut back on calories, portion size, etc. should they find themselves frequently going over their recommended daily intake.

Plus, the application doesn't keep track of vitamins or minerals which could be deficient in a person cutting back the amount of food they eat.

I think the best use of the Diet Assistant would be for a patient that has started a diet program with a nutritionist and/or some other professional that is guiding them in the right direction with both diet and exercise. Or, if the patient is already pretty knowledgeable about nutrition and exercise and just needs to lose a few pounds, they may be okay without a professional guiding them.

[Medcat99]

I found this:

http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?sid=18599620030210121316&prodID=15778

But I'm sure there are better out there. Keep searching. As for Shots, it is a great program, but definately geared towards the health care professional. Your pediatrician should be going over what to expect from each upcoming visit including vaccines. Also, you child should have been given a vaccine card. You can keep track electronically, but if you don't have this "hard copy", things like registering for school may be very difficult.

[LanMan]

I am keeping track of my infants visits via McBaby:

http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?sid=18599620030210121316&prodID=41385

I am a little surprised that you feel that Shots 2003 is geared toward physicians. I admit that I haven't looked at it for a couple of months. I thought that the graphic was a great way to track when shots are to be scheduled. I'm sure that most parents rely on the pediatrician to track their shots, but I believe that a parent should be educated about when children are supposed to receive what. I for one want to educate myself about an immunization before it is given to my child.

[LanMan]

HealthEmpowermentTools by PDAHealthWare appears to be a new program that is sync PC>Palm.

http://www.palmpilotsoftwares.com/

I would be very interested in your comments regarding this software. I would especially be interested in your thoughts about the asthma section.

http://www.HealthEngage.com seems to have the best asthma software that I have seen for PC/PDA. However, I like the idea that PDAHealthWare allows one to track all types of medical information.

Here is a good review of the HealthEngage asthma product:

http://www.firelogic.com/PR/AOL.html

Thanks

[MaryJoS]

H.E.T. was definitely the best patient-oriented Palm software I have tried. Unfortunately, it crashed pretty frequently on my Clie 710C, and as far as I know, they still haven't addressed the problem. I might download it and give it another try though, now that I am using a NR70V. It's really nice software in terms of capability.

[LanMan]

Thanks, Mary Jo. What sections of HET did you find that you really used (when it wasn't crashing)? Do you think that HET has enough functions to track a newborns doctor visits, vaccinations, meds, doctor recommendations, feeding/diaper log, etc.?

[MaryJoS]

Well, download it and give it a try. But yes, I think it would be able to handle most of that. Maybe not the diaper log, but everything else. And it does have a desktop component as well, which you are unlikely to find with any other program.

[*YellowRose*]

It's also my understanding that HET can track MULTIPLE people . . . so you can keep you AND your kids info on your PDA.  They've got a new desktop companion out too.   However, it does not work for OS5.

[Unregistered]

Have a look at Universal Tracking System
http://utracksys.com

It can track medical tests, diet and nutrition, weight, blood pressure and pulse, smoking, stress level, activity, ...

BTW, it can be useful for doctors also as it can track time and things of any nature.