It’s a great way for patients to meet, connect and support each other and a smart way for Boston Scientific to build their brand as a new era of empowered patients emerges.
Of course, the above is not true (at least not yet). It is only wishful thinking on my part. I have no knowledge that Boston Scientific (or other device manufacturer) is working on such an app.
But I hope the day will come when patients will be able to use their smart phones to find and connect with others, view our device's settings, review the electrogram of an arrhythmic event, or even download our heart's data from a remote monitoring network (Boston Scientific's Latitude Patient Management System, for example).
Other useful applications could include an app that allows for patients to keep an event log, recording activities such as eating, walking, or driving and symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness and shortness of breath. This data could be sent to a networked printer, transmitted by email, or downloaded to a personal computer and later matched up by a doctor or nurse to an interrogation report.
Ultimately, I'd really like to be able to download the electrogram for an arrhythmia, display a "dashboard" with my device's programming settings, event summary, pacing percentage, battery life, etc.
Such access to information could be a compelling selling point when it comes time for an ICD to get replaced. It's all about control. And control translates into true cardiac disease management.
And whoever provides us patients the highest level of control—and service—is more likely to get our business.
Of course, the above is not true (at least not yet). It is only wishful thinking on my part. I have no knowledge that Boston Scientific (or other device manufacturer) is working on such an app.
But I hope the day will come when patients will be able to use their smart phones to find and connect with others, view our device's settings, review the electrogram of an arrhythmic event, or even download our heart's data from a remote monitoring network (Boston Scientific's Latitude Patient Management System, for example).
Other useful applications could include an app that allows for patients to keep an event log, recording activities such as eating, walking, or driving and symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness and shortness of breath. This data could be sent to a networked printer, transmitted by email, or downloaded to a personal computer and later matched up by a doctor or nurse to an interrogation report.
Ultimately, I'd really like to be able to download the electrogram for an arrhythmia, display a "dashboard" with my device's programming settings, event summary, pacing percentage, battery life, etc.
Such access to information could be a compelling selling point when it comes time for an ICD to get replaced. It's all about control. And control translates into true cardiac disease management.
And whoever provides us patients the highest level of control—and service—is more likely to get our business.
2 comments:
This is such a great idea. I wish that this were available now on my smartphone.
There are so many things I feel that I wonder what they are, it would be great to log those and match them to my interrogation report.
Dreams.
http://www.information-management.com/news/health_technology-10016795-1.html
Boston Scientific gave a grant for an Iphone application that is headed in the direction of your article.
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