What does mobile health need more than anything right now? Real-world clinical evidence that demonstrates its benefits to patients, physicians and payers, says a trio of Scripps Clinic physicians.
In a guest column in The Journal of the American Medical Association released earlier this week, three cardiologists — Dr. Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute; Dr. Steven Steinhubl, director of Scripps’ digital medicine program; and Dr. Evan Muse, a research fellow at STSI — explain three areas where mobile health could transform care.
Acute care: Mobile health devices and apps exist to address “all of the most common conditions” that bring patients to a doctor’s office, the doctors wrote. For example, a smartphone-based thermometer being developed measures temperature and tracks symptoms but also connects a user to trends in the local community, giving a user insight into when seeing a doctor could help. In the not-too-distant future, the authors write, a middle ear infection might be diagnosed with a smartphone-based otoscope, and urinary tract infections with at-home urinalysis.
Chronic care: Hypertension is the most common diagnosis for an office visit, according to the clinicians, but less than half of individuals with hypertension have their blood pressure under control. Devices like blood pressure cuffs that wirelessly transmit readings back to a physician could keep chronically ill patients out of the office for routine management purposes. In the next several years, new devices could refine the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and other conditions, including diabetes and COPD.
Clinicians: With the help of algorithms built into the software for such devices, physicians could track large cohorts of patients for abnormal readings and address them by text, phone call, email or office visit. The cardiologists write:
“By eliminating physicians’ unneeded involvement in algorithmic, precision medicine that has little need for extensive training and knowledge, clinicians might be able to spend more time with the patients who need them most,” the physicians wrote. “In the future, when financial incentives are better aligned with the needs of patients and mobile technologies are embraced, much of the current time demands on physicians could be eliminated because of greater patient self-management and shared care — practice features already associated with greater physician satisfaction.”
Read the full column in JAMA here.
