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.

Comments

Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[PessimysticRaven]

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!"

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[ackthpt]

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!"

It's a boon to hypochondriacs - they'll find a horrible ailment for every ache, pain, disorientation, discoloration, etc.

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Yet. I predict from this trend will rise cheap, bluetooth enabled medical sensors of various types.

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[couchslug]

"As long as people don't like/trust doctors"

Nice corporate line. My wife had Lyme and went from doctor to doctor before they finally referred her to specialist care which confirmed what she'd already diagnosed!

Doctors are not interchangeable, have a tiny slice of time to work with patients (your auto mechanic has more time per car by far!), and are under constant pressure.

Computer-aided diagnosis can be a huge boon to a public who can't afford medical care or who are under-served by existing options.

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[Pope]

Suicide by trebuchet!

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[Anonymous Coward]

Tracking blood pressure and blood sugar is not self diagnosis. It's really fantastic if you already are diagnosed with something and need to keep track of those numbers in the first place, especially if you combine it with food and medical logs. When I had gestational diabetes, I was able to send reports from a diabetes website to my midwife, so she could keep track of my blood sugars and diets with every visit, to make sure I didn't need to start medication, and remain diet controlled. I was also able to find out that milk was a huge trigger for me, and had to avoid it. Had I not kept all those logs like that, and just checked to make sure I didn't go over whatever number the midwife said, I would have wound up on insulin, and would have had to deliver in the hospital, with an MD, and not at the birth center, with my midwife, because I would have been high risk. Instead, this made it so much easier to look at the big picture and say, "Hey, why don't you cut out the milk, the times you have that is when you have the spikes in blood sugar".

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[Belial6]

Not to mention that the vast majority of illness/injury are already self diagnosed and self treated. Can you imagine if every time you got a headache or your kid scratched themselves while playing, you rushed off to the doctor?

Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor

[sjames]

It'll probably save a few people who would otherwise get no healthcare at all.

I typed in my symptoms and it says

[shoppa]

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??!!!!?

Re:I typed in my symptoms and it says

[SpzToid]

Doctor, we've got a 404, Stat!

Re:I typed in my symptoms and it says

[Kjella]

Wouldn't a 503 be more appropriate? Also, stat can be translated as "now!" so you're supposed to say what you want first like "We need a WiFi hotspot, stat". It's not capitalized, it's just a normal adverb (from latin statim). And with this much nitpicking in one post, I'm bound to have typo'd something...

Awareness

[trimpnick]

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.

Re:Awareness

[ColdWetDog]

Look, knowledgeable patients are helpful, no matter how they get the knowledge. And 'smartphones' are really just a ubiquitous hardware standard for the several devices that have been available to the general public for years - BP cuffs, glucometers, pulse oximeters and a few more. It isn't going to 'revolutionize' anything. I will 'evolutionalize' (huh, spell checker doesn't like that one) things. Just like having automatic blood pressure cuffs so you didn't have to figure out what Kortkoff sounds were. Just makes it easier and more convenient.

You're not going to see much in the way of full scale autodiagnosis for a while. But a reasonably intelligent person with college level reading skills and access to the Internet could puzzle out most medical problems given some time and perhaps direction. The rest of the planet, not so much.

Taking a photo != Diagnosis..

[uncledrax]

.. 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..)

Re:DIY medicine started a lot earlier than smartph

[ackthpt]

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.

Assisted Suicide App

[The_Crisis]

It's already here. You can find it under the name "Angry Birds."

Re:Assisted Suicide App

[element-o.p.]

No, that just makes you want to commit suicide. It doesn't actually help you accomplish the task ;)

Liberating Experiences

[Ukab the Great]

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.

Re:DIY medicine started a lot earlier than smartph

[TubeSteak]

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.

Sensors

[gmuslera]

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.

mHealth

[cheezitmike]

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.

Re:mHealth

[uhead]

I agree: diagnosis is only one (arguably less important) area where mobile technologies are going to benefit us. I think the real opportunity lies in transforming the way patients live with their illnesses after diagnosis. More generally, mobile technologies have the potential to dramatically improve the quality of our health by empowering patients to be more engaged in their care. I think the current focus on just collecting data for the purpose of diagnosis is misguided. What we really need to be focusing on is how to engage patients. Patients need to own and control their data, they need to have their data presented in timely, convenient, and actionable formats, and they need to be empowered to work with their doctors (and other care providers) through ongoing collaboration (not patriarchal episodic care). This is the primary focus of the group I work with at the MIT Media Lab. We are working to build an open-source platform for patient-centered care research, and recently completed an event where we invited students, health professionals, and innovators from industry to build prototypes of patient-empowering solutions. You can see a brief video summarizing the event and projects here: http://newmed.media.mit.edu/blog/jom/2012/02/23/health-and-wellness-innovation-2012-intro-video. Smartphones are indeed going to help start a boom in DIY medicine, but not just by becoming pocket-diagnosis machines. Rather, our phones are going to help us take control of our health.

Really bad idea from bad people

[Okian Warrior]

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:

• Motivated: By the time you get to see a doctor, he's already got your money. There's no incentive to actually cure you, and every incentive to get you to come back for more appointments. If he makes a wrong diagnosis, you pay for another one. (Hint: Compare with getting your car fixed.)
• Smart: As everyone here on this forum and everywhere else in the country are quick to point out, doctors are idiots. Rather than diagnose, they roll dice for your treatment. "Probably <common-problem>, try this and see if it gets better".
• Professional: Just as doctors are nominally the best people to diagnose disease, doctors are also the best people to judge other doctors. And yet, issues of mistake or malpractice are generally hidden from public view by the doctors themselves. It's impossible to judge whether someone is a bad doctor, or a good doctor who made a rare mistake, or a good doctor doing inherently risky procedures.

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.

Made extensive use after major injury

[Tangential]

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.

Mod parent up

[Paul Fernhout]

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,