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Are Smartphones Starting a Boom In DIY Medicine?
An anonymous reader writes "How are you using smartphones and other portable devices to take charge of your medical care? The NY Times has an article about attachments to the iPhone for tracking blood sugar and blood pressure. There are also glorified web cams that take pictures of your ear drum, teeth or eyes to save you a trip to the doctor's. Some people are tracking the changes in their moles with an iPhone App. Is this the beginning of Med 2.0?" Odd as it sounds, I was able to be more quickly and reliably diagnosed with Lyme disease last fall because I'd taken some pictures on my phone of the lesion I'd wrongly thought was the result of a spider bite. Any camera would have worked, but I had my camera-equipped phone with me, rather than any other kind.
Anyone so lazy that they wouldn't think to take care of their own health using the resources and devices already available to them - books, Internet-based references, first aid courses, exercise, nutritionists, cameras, sphygmomanometers, etc. - is not going to put in the requisite effort just because an iPhone allows them to put a little less effort into the bits where they don't have to think much anyway.
As long as people don't like/trust doctors, or paying the high bills, there will always be serious interest in self-diagnosis. Smartphones do nothing to add to it, aside from allowing a portable search engine to plug symptoms into. Instant gratification.
On the plus side, this'll likely increase the amount of reported deaths caused by self-treatment, because "ZOMG Technology is EVOL!"
Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screw-up.
I typed in my symptoms and my iPhone says that I have:
Internet Connectivity Problems
Oh no, do I have to go to the emergency room??!!!!?
DIY medicine started a lot earlier than smartphone. My friend got hit by a boom while sailing once and split his forehead. His dad grabbed the duct tape conveniently aboard (they were far from a hospital) and *PRESTO*, wound sealed. It healed with less of a scar than my finger I got stitches for.
On a slightly more serious note, the interwebs and all its tubes have increased the ease of access to medical information and I certainly hope have improved the quality of care patients can get just by being more educated.
I think that while documentation is already freely available for a lot of medical conditions, integrations into a single device (that you carry all the time with you) can surely raise awareness about such documentation. I don't think that people wanting to know more about a medical condition is necessarily evil or a sign of not trusting doctors. Has the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake completely disappeared? "Self-medication" may well result in misdiagnosis and possible complications by not going to the doctor in some cases, but on the flip side, it might encourage others to go consult trained professionnals because they think they might not have something as benign as they first thought. Furthermore, there is a lot of developement in completely automated tools for diagnosing infections, genetic mutations, etc which might reduce the need for some medical consultation within the next 5-10 years.
the lesion I'd wrongly thought was the result of a spider bite
Now that could have been waaaay cooler than Lyme desease.
Smivs on the intertubes!
.. I'm a bit confused.. is there an App that analysis a photograph and gives you a diagnosis?
Else I'm wondering how taking a photo of an ailment helps diagnosis.. more information is needed.
That said, I think it's the availability of Pocket Internet that is doing this. not necessary smartphones.. keep it abstract and we won't have to also have 'Are ${your-tablet-here} starting a boom of DIY medicine?'....
Further on.. do people really think that every little ailment they have requires a 'medical professional'?
(I am NOT advocating that laypersons diagnosis or treat anything remotely serious.. just it seems to me people are heading to ERs/MDs for issues that could easily be treated at home with just a tiny bit of knowledge..)
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
DIY medicine started a lot earlier than smartphone. My friend got hit by a boom while sailing once and split his forehead. His dad grabbed the duct tape conveniently aboard (they were far from a hospital) and *PRESTO*, wound sealed. It healed with less of a scar than my finger I got stitches for.
On a slightly more serious note, the interwebs and all its tubes have increased the ease of access to medical information and I certainly hope have improved the quality of care patients can get just by being more educated.
I use Super Glue on cuts all the time. Faster than a bandage. Also good when I get one of those damn split fingernails, just glue the sucker back together and I'm back picking my n... picking apples like a pro.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Super glue is amazing it's true I use it as well. Although for cuts that are likely to get infected liquid bandage would probably be better- it has a disinfectant in with the glue. #1 in my first aid kit :)
They way I use my phone to improve my health is by using it less, or use it only when I need to. Put the phone down on my desk instead of having it on my all the time, and don't be so dependent on checking emails and facebook.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
The faster we can transfer knowledge, the thinner the gap between professionals and autodidacts becomes. I think this is true of every profession, and not just the medical field.
It's already here. You can find it under the name "Angry Birds."
"It is a fine line between lazy and efficient."
Bluetooth cellphone headsets liberated schizophrenics from the stigma of talking out loud to yourself.
DIY cellphone medicine will liberate people who want to stick their cell phone up their anus from the stigma associated with sticking a cell phone up your anus.
My doctor will not do any online media (facebook, twitter, email, ...) because if someone sends him something (a picture of a mole, a description of an anomoly, etc.) he is, by law, assumed to have seen that transmission and acted on it professionally - even if he never saw the message. He says that the liability issues are enormous and he won't even get on facebook with his kids.
Using google, I have self diagnosed myself with HIV and cancer at least 13 times in the last 15 years. When I finally get to the doctor, the blood tests are clear, the lumps are fat, and the fevers are a cold virus!
I have an iPhone 4. My wife has advanced Lupus and several other obscure maladies. My ability to grab high quality video of a short & mild (and thankfully rare) seizure/spell, while narrating the event and asking relevant questions of my wife for the 5-10 minutes it lasted was invaluable for the doctor.
Rather than trying to describe it from my or her memory, the doc could see her pupils, see the limb tremors, hear her responses to questions (Do you know where you are, what is today, what are you feeling, can you lift your hands/feet/look at my finger/follow my hand moving, are you hot/cold/dizzy, et.al.), see her overall pallor, etc.
Not DIY really, but very helpful, compared to potentially faulty/spotty recall hours or days after the fact.
people already self medicate
they use alcohol, canabis, savlon, lsd, ritilin and all sorts. the problem seems to be when either corporations aren't making money out of it or when people abuse them.
here in the uk having cannabis in your possession is classed as 'abuse'. uk law is lulzy
Not as more and more employers ban phones from being turned on during company time. It might be hard for an IT guy or developer to get their head around, but it is true and IMHO probably increasing. And giving the boss a note from your doctor requiring you have your phone on and ready at all times would be an hilarious vignette to watch.
I use Super Glue on cuts all the time.
There are 'medical grade' super glues.
They use different chemicals that are non-toxic and less irritating to the skin.
Of course, like a camera, the best type of liquid bandage is the one you have with you.
P.S. Don't buy any liquid bandaid with oil of cloves in it. The smell is awful and stays on you for far too long.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Just today was watching this Solve for X talk, where Kevin Dowling present strechable electronics, that is a very thin sheet can be attached to the skin and work as internal sensors, having communication and so on. Pairing that with a cellphone looks the next logical step.
And yes, with the appropiate sensors a cellphone could be a good boom for diy medicine, provided that it can detect whether you should worry about, take measures for yourself, or scale up to going to a proper doctor or hospital.
And have it make that "wooowooowooo" noise like a proper medical tricorder.
Using mobile technologies for healthcare is not just for self-diagnosis or as an alternative to expensive medical care. Many doctors and hospitals are adopting the technology and encouraging their patients to adopt it. There are lots of things you can do smaller and cheaper where telehealth systems or healthcare websites are currently being used. Preventive medicine mobile applications have been successful for improving health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions, in particular. Read the article before casually dismissing the field as a bunch of hypochondriacs trying to self-medicate.
If you're a developer interested in the mobile health field, the mHealth Summit is currently the best annual conference.focused specifically on mobile health out there: http://www.mhealthsummit.org/ Eric Topol, the subject of the NY Times article in the summary above, was one of the keynote speakers at the 2011 conference, along with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
In the future, the average workers job's will require them to monitor themselves for drug tests etc. instead of the company having to pay for a traditional test of any kind.
Actually, medical grade super glues are EXACTLY the same stuff you get at the hardware store, just much more expensive because they're 'medical'.
I cannot even tell you how much of a bad idea this is. I am graduating medical school in two months, and am barely starting to feel "a little" comfortable making a judgment on my own, only a fraction of the time. I will need to accumulate ALL of the experience that 3 years of 80+hour work weeks of residency can give me. And I am a cocky bastard at that. I just realize that the difference between a doctor (especially one trained at a high-volume top-tier teaching hospital) and a civilian is. The gap is so large, as to be close to insurmountable. Actually, probably the most important thing I have learned in my training, is that I know VERY LITTLE from the overall ocean of medical knowledge, and my pond is much larger than average.
Anyway, I'm ranting. Let me give you a shorter explanation. I have PhD. I am 2 months away from having an MD. If I have a rash that concerns me, I go to a dermatologist. I don't research it online, and won't use an app to do it. I know precisely enough between my two degrees to know where the limits of my knowledge are. Most people don't. The number of soccer-moms (and dads) who think they know medicine is enormous... and their tinkering puts them and their families in danger. Nothing can ever give you the knowledge and especially the experience of going through medical training... other than medical training.
At the beginning of my career, I will have spent 4 years in college, 5 years in graduate school, 4 years in medical school, 3 years in residency, and 3 years in fellowship (19 years total, with my guess an average of >80hrs/wk, even including college, but let's say 80, so over 70'000 hours, with 40'000 hours of medicine alone).
I really hope that when my patients come to me, I'll be more useful to them than an iPhone app.
I believe that the rapidly increasing use of smartphones and google in self-diagnosis is linked to a synergy between more inexpensive + better technology and the ridiculous cost structure, attitudes and lack of accountability in medicine. http://dissention.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/who-will-pay-physicians-lawyers-etc-in-the-future/
and this one.. http://dissention.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/how-physicians-lost-credibility-and-why-it-matters-1/
All the anecdotal evidence posted as a result of this one article, and you still can't see the forest for the trees.
I'd love it if a caring, smart, motivated professional would take the time to diagnose my ills when I have them - I truly would.
The problem is that the professionals are neither motivated, smart, nor professional. Let me break that down for you in easy pieces:
Medical care in this country is broken in the way that it is set up. It's an overly expensive inflexible walled-garden. It takes informed choice away from people, and then derides them for attempting to learn more.
It's another one of those entrenched monopolies that we hear so much about. It'll take awhile, but eventually new technology will overtake the entrenched interests and surpass it - Just like the digital camera did to film cameras, iTunes is doing to music, P2P is doing to movies, and Udacity will soon be doing to universities.
It's a bubble-burst whose time has come.
I suffered a major injury almost 2 years ago that involved compound fractures, wound treatment, PICC lines, osteomyelitis, hyperbaric therapy, 6 surgeries and culminated in a replacement ankle several weeks ago. I found the lack of communications between the various medical branches appalling. Kept photos of every X-ray, every exam, every bloodwork report, as well as a detailed chronology etc.. in my iPhone. That way I was able to share it with each Doc because they would NOT communicate with each other.
If you are dealing with multiple doctors, you need to make sure that each doc has all of the facts, because for the most part, they could care less about anything not directly in their specific field.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
Sad, but true...
And it gets even worse:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/PCI_angioplasty_article.aspx
"Interventional cardiology and cardiovascular surgery is basically a scam based on a misunderstanding of the nature of heart disease. Searching for and treating obstructive plaque does not address the areas of the coronary vascular tree most likely to rupture and cause heart attacks. If there was never another CABG or angioplasty performed or stent placed, patients with heart disease would be better off. Doctors would be forced to educate our citizens that their heart disease risk is determined by what they place on their forks. Millions of lives would be dramatically extended. To abandon the theory of stretching and cutting out areas with plaque would shut down interventional cardiology, nearly all cardiovascular surgery, and many suppliers of the biotechnology. In many cases, interventional cardiology is the major income generator to hospitals. The ending of this ill-conceived, out-dated and ineffective technology would dramatically downsize hospitals in the United States and free up over $100 billion annually in medical care costs. Besides being ineffective, interventional cardiology places the responsibility in the hands of the doctor and not the patients. When patients finally realize they must take control of their heart problems with aggressive dietary modifications (and when needed medications for temporary periods) we will essentially solve the health crisis in America.
The sad thing is surgical interventions and medications are the foundation of modern cardiology and both are relatively ineffective compared to nutritional excellence. My patients routinely reverse their heart disease, and no longer have vulnerable plaque or high blood pressure, so they do not need medical care, hospitals or cardiologists anymore. The problem is that in the real world cardiac patients are not even informed that heart disease is predictably reversed with nutritional excellence. They are not given the opportunity to choose and just corralled into these surgical interventions.
Trying to figure out how to pay for ineffective and expensive medicine by politicians will never be a real solution. People need to know they do not have to have heart disease to begin with, and if they get it, aggressive nutrition is the most life-saving intervention. And it is free."
And:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/to-james-randi-on-skepticism-about-mainstream-science.html#Some_quotes_on_social_problems_in_science
"The problems I've discussed are not limited to psychiatry, although they reach their most florid form there. Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. (Marcia Angell)"
Much of the path to better health was known 100 years ago by the natural hygienists. See:
http://soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
"At this time in 1927, Dr. Shelton is already being harassed in his Hygienic practice by advocates of The Medical Mentality and by the police. In 1927, Dr. Shelton is jailed for the first time for "practicing medicine without a license" and is fined $100.oo. This same year of 1927, a second arrest takes place, under similar circumstances and with charges of $300.oo. His money is so tight this second time, he has to borrow to be released. Also,
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
Medicine to me seems like something an expert system would be really good at. a doctor is not going to be able to cross reference every condition a patient has, as well as every medicine they take, as well as take things like base health and diet exercise rates as well.
so many lives could be saved if diagnosis could be automatable to the point where doctors don't have to be a walking medical library that can pull diagnosis out of their asses, Nurses don't have to keep a filing cabinet full of information about a patient available at a moment's notice, administrators will actually have a clue when something is amiss in the hospital, and surgeons can more easily perform surgery and avoid screwups.
stuff like this could really improve the health care industry. (that and a central medical record repository that all hospitals, doctors offices, dentists, specialists, and pharmacies can all play on the same page).
Maybe we can get america's medical industry into the 21st century
No, the medical stuff dries to a soft, smooth surface. Nothing wrong with the hardware store stuff, though, as long as you clean it really well first. It will hurt, though.
...and yet many of "you" (doctors) will protect your turf, put down those "soccer-moms" that know their own kids better than anyone else and have a stronger drive to care for them than anyone else as well. Kind of sad. Here's what's really sad-- my child had a malignant brain tumor. We took him to a nurse practitioner who nailed it right away. I am very thankful because I've met a number of parents who's children had the same (or worse) symptoms and yet their doctors knew so much more than the parents and even lectured how their children were just faking being sick to get out of going to school! Yikes... by the time these poor kids were diagnosed their tumors where huge. If these "soccer moms" hadn't been persistent and had decided they don't know medicine and should just listen to the doctor and follow orders like a well managed parent/patient these kids might not have had any chance (and note, I didn't say whether these kids made it or not). Really, really sad. I could go on to another medical specialty, but the current practice of obstetrics in the U.S.A. is so crazy that it would be funny if it wasn't messing with the lives of women and their children, so I'm not evening going there.
Also, glad you recognize that you're cocky. Realize that also means you might have a tendency to dismiss the thoughts, ideas and efforts of those that haven't followed the same educational path you have or that haven't overworked themselves as much.
I have used the hardware store stuff myself and had no problems whatsoever. It was painless and flexible. I have seen interviews where surgeons admitted that they just use the hardware store stuff (though that was when it was fairly new).
I can't see a good reason to pay more for the so called 'medical grade' stuff.
The primary reason to use it is that it is blessed by the FDA, so if someone has a reaction at the site there's no question that you used a product that has been tested and certified safe for human use. A secondary reason is that it forms a cohesive mass, so that if you peel it off you don't have to worry about pieces coming off in the wound.
And things like that are why people end up with no medical care at all.