The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 issue 5 (Oct) | Page 29

The Secret Recipe of Meaningful Digital Health
of control, a vital component of dealing
with challenging illnesses.”
“Cancer treatment is a challenging journey. Adherence to complicated treatment
regimens, and the streamlined recording and reporting of health issues during treatment are of paramount value.
Medopad's Apple Watch chemotherapy
application is an exciting new development in medical technology that can
transform the quality and safety of care

for patients, carers and care providers.
This can eventually reduce the cost and
improve the outcome of treatment for
cancer patients,” said Dr Siamak Arami,
MD, MRCP, MD (Res), FRCPath - Consultant Haematologist at King’s College
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Approximately 10% of the UK NHS’s
annual budget is dedicated to cancer treatment and a single pill can cost
upwards of £1,000 per day. When a

patient misses a drug, not only is there
the potential for a significant physical
impact, but there is also a compliance
concern. Doctors trust their patients
to take their prescriptions regularly and
the comparatively low cost of an Apple
Watch assists doctors and patients during that process. The Medopad platforms ensure that this relatively complex project can be easily managed and
deployed and is designed for patients of
any technical level to use. n

The Secret Recipe of Meaningful
Digital Health
Extending the Patient-Provider Relationship + Proven
Clinical Effectiveness
In the United States, “meaningful use” metrics are defining high
quality healthcare not simply on an interventional basis, but
rather from a holistic perspective. Lifestyle management, educational counseling, and disease prevention strategies have been
deemed requisite to the highest standard of care. Yet, this presents a logistical challenge for even the most efficient providers.
First, the management of patient behavior – whether it is related
to nutrition, exercise, or use of medication – requires appropriate tact and painstaking attention from the healthcare professional. Providers lament the fact that, given their workload, they
do not have sufficient time and resources to adequately devote
to their patients, especially as it relates to education and counseling. Moreover, in order to deliver precise, personalized care,
providers require timely and accurate patient data. Whether it is
the management of chronic hypertension, diabetes, heart dis-

ease, or pregnancy, the collection and analysis of clinical data is
critical to the improvement of medical outcomes. Clinical data
needs to reach the provider often in a time-sensitive fashion,
yet not be overwhelming to the provider by the presence of
“noise.” And then, of course, the data must be rigorously analyzed to discover medically-meaningful trends. Sorting through
the data can therefore be a massive headache.
In short, in order to manage patient behavior and monitor their
clinical data, there is more work to be accomplished than there
are providers. While the adequate management of a patient
population can be daunting, the majority of doctors believe that
these approaches are nonetheless necessary for the delivery of
high quality care.
The Emergence of mHealth and Internet of (Health)
Things
Can the behavior of the everyday person provide the healthcare
community with a clue to the solution? Given the affordability
and accessibility of smartphone technology, mobile applications
(“apps”) and other digital tools have become nearly universal.
A large swath of Americans use mobile digital tools to manage
some facet of their lives.
In the medical space, 31% of cell phone owners look up health
information while one in five users have downloaded a healthrelated mobile app, not to mention the prevalent use of medicallyrelated Internet sites by non-cell phone users, such as WebMD1.
Through the internet-enabled immediacy of medical knowledge, the average user has not only become actively interested
in their health, but now can actively collect data about their
lives. In particular, the high-resolution collection of health data
has engendered the so-called “quantified self ” movement. The
widespread use of wearable technologies, like the Fitbit and
Apple Watch are popular examples of this trend. By 2016, there
will be 80 million wearable wellbeing sensors, and the market for
health apps will represent $400 million2. All in all, this wireless
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The Journal of mHealth

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