The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 6 (Dec 2014) | Page 28

Empowering Patients: How the mHealth Vision has become a Reality
Continued from page 24

initiative, ‘Intelligent Pharmaceuticals’,
which will be implemented across a
number of key therapeutic areas globally.
The first program to be announced publicly is ‘Me&MyCOPD’, which is initially
being rolled out in the UK to support
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease) patients. ‘Me&MyCOPD’ is an
integrated health solution designed to
support each individual patient towards
better medication and lifestyle management, providing personalized selfmanagement tools for the patient which
responds to the individuals needs in the
right way, at the right time. The program uses a mobile and internet based
platform to capture information, manage medication and support the patient’s
existing COPD care-plan, integrating
HCPs into the end-to-end process.
Ultimately ‘Me&MyCOPD’ empowers
patients to take control of their condition and self-manage to improve their
health outcomes.
Information provided to the patient can
be accessed in a variety of ways, whether
through internet portals or mobile
devices. This real-time interaction means
that not only can the patient’s adherence
to treatment regimens be monitored, but
the patients themselves can be assured
that, if their condition does worsen, they
will receive further support and guidance
and, when necessary, an intervention can
be staged, and referral to their HCP can
be made.

The ‘Me&MyCOPD’ program rolled out
by AstraZeneca and Exco InTouch not
only improves the long-term engagement and the pro-active management
of COPD among individual patients, it
provides a comprehensive system to all
of the stakeholders within the healthcare system, including caregivers, HCPs
and healthcare payers. The program is
the first to employ a personalised, truly
mobile approach to monitor, support
and empower patients to take control
of their condition, utilising their own
communication devices. Moreover, the
program ultimately allows AstraZeneca to focus their efforts to deliver new
medicines that will address unmet needs
by expanding their understanding of
how patients use and respond to various treatment options. This underpins
the ‘Intelligent Pharmaceuticals’ strategy
adopted by AstraZeneca and is a leading
example of how optimised treatment
can improve patients’ quality of life and
health outcomes.
Defining the future of
healthcare
As we have seen, the emerging market
for mHealth services holds within it
the potential to revolutionise how the
world will manage health and wellness
in the 21st century. Patients need access
to information, they need to feel connected, to better understand their condition, be empowered and ultimately to
enjoy better health outcomes. Advances
in mobile technology, and the growth
of access to it around the world, now

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26

December 2014

References
1. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/
2. Pharmatimes
“Drug
nonadherence "costing NHS £500M+
a year" http://www.pharmatimes.com/
mobile/13-02-19/Drug_non-adherence_
costing_NHS_%C2%A3500M_a_year.
aspx
3. World Health Organization
(2010), “Global status report on
non-communicable diseases”
4. International Telecommunication Union (2013), “ICT Facts and
Figures: The World in 2013”, http://
www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/
Pages/facts/default.aspx
5. GSMA & PWC (2012), “Touching lives through mobile health
report”
6. App Engagement: The Matrix
Reloaded http://blog.flurry.com n

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enable the development of programs to
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their caregivers and their HCPs. This
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empowers patients to take control of
their health conditions, reducing the burden of healthcare for payers, improving
health outcomes and ultimately leading
to improved quality of life for patients.

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