Mobile applications guarding the health of the user's body
A small device called TellSpec (1), paired with a smartphone, can detect allergens hidden in food and alert them to them. If we remember the tragic stories that come to us from time to time about children who inadvertently ate sweets containing an element to which they are allergic and died, it may dawn on us that mobile health applications are more than curiosity and maybe they can even save someone's life...
TellSpec Toronto has developed a sensor with spectroscopic features. Its advantage is its small size. It is connected in the cloud with a database and algorithms that convert information from measurements into data that is understandable to the average user. smartphone app.
It alerts you to the presence of various potentially allergenic substances in what is on the plate, for example, before gluten. We are talking not only about allergens, but also about “bad” fats, sugar, mercury, or other toxic and harmful substances.
The device and the connected application also allow you to estimate the calorie content of food. For the sake of order, it should be added that the manufacturers themselves admit that TellSpec identifies 97,7 percent of the composition of the products, so these almost notorious “traces of nuts” can not be “sniffed out”.
1. The TellSpec app detects allergens
Appek rash
potential mobile health app (mobile health or mHealth) is huge. However, they raise considerable doubts among both patients and doctors. The Institute of Medical Informatics conducted a study during which they analyzed more than 43 applications of this type.
The results show that Despite the vast number of health solutions available, much of their potential is not being fully utilized.. First, more than 50 percent of them download less than five hundred times.
According to the researchers, the reason is the low awareness of this need on the part of patients, as well as the lack of recommendations from doctors. An important factor limiting the number of downloads is also the fear of unauthorized use of the entered health-related data.
2. Ultrasonic device Mobisante
On the other hand, in Poland in 2014, as many as fifteen foundations and patient associations joined in promoting the non-commercial application My Treatment, which is a simple tool for taking medications.
The same application won last year's "Apps without barriers" survey in the category "Accessible applications - general applications", organized by the Integration Foundation under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Poland.
By the end of December, several thousand people had downloaded it. This is not the only application of its kind that is gaining popularity in Poland. First aid apps such as Orange and Lux-Med's "First Aid" or "Rescue Training", created in collaboration with the Play operator and the Big Christmas Charity Orchestra, are very popular and are available for free as first aid.
Application for mobile devices, "KnannyLekarz", available on the website of the same name, provides a wide range of services - from finding doctors, adding reviews about specialists, to making an appointment. The handheld location allows you to find experts in your area.
The Reimbursed Drugs app offers a regularly updated list of drugs and other drugs that are covered by the National Health Fund.
Provides access to summary information on more than 4. government-reimbursed drugs, including drugs, medical devices, specialty foods, drug programs or chemotherapy drugs, including detailed descriptions, including indications and contraindications.
Another noteworthy application that allows you to monitor your health on a daily basis is Blood Pressure. The application is a kind of diary in which we enter the results of our blood pressure measurements, over time getting a longer history of measurements.
This allows you to create charts and trendlines to help us and our doctor analyze test results. Of course, you can’t measure blood pressure either with them or with a phone, but as an analytical tool it can be valuable.
Devices that solve the above measurement problem have been available on the market for some time. It has a name - teleanalysis - and it is possible thanks to cases or compatible devices specially adapted for smartphones.
Application “Naszacukrzyca.pl” Therefore, it is in line with the need for daily monitoring and self-monitoring of health for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The user can not only enter the sugar level from the glucometer or calculate the appropriate insulin dose, but also add other parameters necessary to correctly assess the current state of health , such as the meals consumed with their nutritional value, the time of taking oral medications, or note the physical activity or stressful situation.
4. The dermatoscope will analyze the changes in the skin.
5. Smartphone with iBGStar overlay
The application works closely with the website www.naszacukrzyca.pl, where you can submit detailed reports and analyzes, and then send them directly to your doctor or use the information needed in the daily life of a diabetic.
If we feel the need to go to the doctor every time we notice that something disturbing is happening to our body, we can turn to the virtual doctor Dr. Medi, who does not have to stand in long lines. The program is presented in the form of an intelligent medical consultant.
His job is to skillfully ask questions. For example, if we have recently experienced a severe headache, Medi will ask us where the source of the pain is and how intense it is. Of course, they will not forget to ask about other alarming symptoms, and in the end they will diagnose what is wrong with us and advise where we should turn with our problem (if necessary).
The application has no particular problems in recognizing the most popular diseases. It is worth noting that the program is able to diagnose the disease from time to time, even when we decide to give "blind" answers. The Lexicon of Health is a kind of portable medical encyclopedia. In it we can find basic information about the most popular diseases and human diseases.
All this, of course, completely in Polish, which is a huge plus. The application allows you to look up diseases alphabetically, but also provides a search engine, which is useful when we don't want to expand our medical knowledge and the situation simply forces us to learn more about a particular disease.
From ultrasound to dermatology
6. AliveECG from AliveCor will give us an electrocardiogram
mobile applications and smartphones are also beginning to penetrate areas previously reserved, it would seem, only for specialists. All you have to do is pair the appropriate accessory with your phone.
For example, MobiUS SP1 from Mobisante (2) is nothing but a portable ultrasound machine based on a small scanner and application.
The smartphone can also be connected to an otoscope (3), an ENT instrument used for endoscopy of the ear, as was done in the machine and Remoscope application, available for iPhone.
As it turned out, mobile technologies can also be used in dermatology. The Dermatoscope (4), also known as the Handyscope, uses an overhead lens to analyze skin lesions.
Even a doctor will evaluate the optical capabilities of the system, although the final diagnosis should be made by himself, based on knowledge and experience, and not on the suggestions of friends from the application. Google still needs to work on a technique for measuring glucose levels with contact lenses.
7. The prosthesis is controlled by a mobile application
Meanwhile, if one wants to do this in a convenient way, one can use a solution such as iBGStar (5), a smart phone overlay device that tests blood samples and then analyzes them using an in-camera app.
In this situation, an electrocardiogram taken with an inexpensive peripheral device (for attaching to the body) and mobile app no one should be surprised.
Many such solutions already exist. One of the first was AliveECG by AliveCor (6), which was approved by the US Drug Administration over two years ago.
Similarly, breath analyzers, blood pressure strips, drug toxicity analyzers, or even prosthetic hand control with an iOS app called i-limb (7) should come as no surprise. All this is available and, moreover, in a variety of constantly improved versions.
Increasingly, applications that work with traditional medical equipment are being developed specifically for physicians. University of Melbourne students have developed StethoCloud(8), a cloud-based system that works by connecting stethoscope application.
This is not a normal stethoscope, but special equipment for detecting pneumonia, since the detector is specifically designed to detect specific "noises" in the lungs associated with this disease.
m-pancreas
8. Lung Examination with StethoCloud
If we can already measure blood sugar, maybe we can use mobile technology to take the next step in the fight against diabetes? A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University are conducting clinical trials of a bionic pancreas in combination with a smartphone app.
The artificial pancreas, by analyzing the level of glucose in the body, not only provides complete information about the current sugar status, but, supported by a computer algorithm, automatically doses insulin and glucagon as needed and necessary.
The tests are carried out in the aforementioned hospital on patients with type 1 diabetes. A signal about the level of sugar in the body is sent from the sensors of the bionic organ to the application on the iPhone every five minutes. Therefore, the patient knows the sugar level on an ongoing basis, and the application also calculates the amount of hormones, insulin and glucagon needed to balance the patient's blood sugar level, and then sends a signal to the pump worn by the patient.
Dosing occurs through a catheter connected to the circulatory system. Evaluations of patients undergoing artificial pancreas surgery were mostly enthusiastic. They stressed that the device, compared to traditional insulin tests and injections, will allow them to make a big qualitative leap in overcoming the difficulties of everyday life with the disease.
The application and automatic dosing system must pass many other tests and be approved by the relevant authorities. The optimistic scenario assumes the appearance of the device in the US market in 2017.
