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Imagine that you recently had a heart attack.
You are a lucky survivor. You have received high quality care from nurses and doctors during your stay at the hospital and you are preparing to return home with the help of your family.
The doctors made it clear that the situation was bleak. It's a case of: changing your lifestyle or dying. You need to quit, increase your physical activity, eat a healthy and balanced diet (while reducing your salt), and be sure to take all your medications as prescribed.
But before leaving the hospital, the cardiology nurse wants to talk to you. You can download on your smartphone a few applications that will help you manage your recovery, including the transition from hospital to home and all the health-related behavioral changes needed to reduce the risk of another. heart attack.
Digital technologies are revolutionizing health care. The benefits are many, but the pace of development is hard to follow. And this creates challenges for both health professionals and patients.
What is digital therapy?
Digital therapy can be defined as any digitally administered intervention that has a therapeutic effect on a patient. They can be used to treat medical conditions in the same way as drugs or surgery.
Current examples of digital therapeutics include applications for medication management and cardiovascular health, applications to support mental health and well-being. patient education.
Letters on paper, health records, prescription charts and educational leaflets are obsolete. We can now send e-mails, enter information into electronic databases and access electronic drug tables.
And patient education is no longer a static and unidirectional communication. The digital revolution facilitates dynamic and personalized education, and a two-way interaction between the patient and the therapist.
How does digital therapeutics help?
Digital health care improves the overall quality of care, even in cases where away from their doctor.
Take diabetes, for example. This disease affects 1.7 million Australians. It is a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is therefore important that people with diabetes manage their disease to reduce their risk.
A recent study evaluated a team-based online game, which was provided by an app to provide education on self-management of diabetes. Participants who received the application in this trial had significant and sustained improvements in their diabetes, as measured by their HbA1c (blood glucose) levels.
Games based on such applications promise to improve the results of large-scale chronic diseases. New electronics are also being used by people of all ages to monitor activity, measure sleep, and record nutrition. This information provides instant and accurate feedback to individuals and their therapists, allowing for adjustments as needed. The recorded information can also be combined into large sets of data to reveal patterns over time and inform future treatments.
Digital Therapy is spawning a new language in the health care industry. "Connected Health" reflects the increasingly digital ways that clinicians and patients communicate. Some examples include text messaging, telehealth and video consultations with health professionals.
There is growing evidence that digital care (including text messaging and applications) can be good for your health. Like diabetes and cardiovascular disease
But not all health applications are the same
While the digital health revolution is exciting, the results of research studies should be interpreted with caution by patients and Suppliers. Health applications available in 2017. This raises important governance issues related to patient safety (including data protection) when using digital therapeutics.
A recent study found that most studies have a relatively short duration of intervention. with the participants. The long-term effect of these new therapeutic interventions remains largely unknown.
The current speed of technological development means that the usual security mechanisms face new ethical and regulatory challenges. Who makes the prescription? Who is responsible for the efficiency, the storage and the accuracy of the data? Digital health needs a collaborative approach
Digital health presents a seismic disruption of patient care, especially when new technologies are inexpensive and easily accessible to patients who may not have the knowledge necessary to recognize normalcy or cause an alarm. Technology can be empowering and empowering for self-management, but much more needs to be done to connect these new technologies to the current health system.
Take the new Apple Watch function of heart rate notifications, for example. Research like the Apple Heart study suggest that this exciting innovation could dramatically improve detection rates for heart rhythm disorders and improve stroke prevention efforts.
But when a patient receives a high heart rate notification, what should they do? Ignore? Go to a GP? Go directly to the emergency room? And what is the impact on the health system?
Many of these questions remain unanswered, suggesting that there is an urgent need to research how technology is implemented in existing health systems.
Digital therapy for real-world problems, it is essential that end users are engaged in the process. Patients and healthcare professionals will need to work with software developers to design applications that meet the complex needs of patients.
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