Docobo extend telehealth to mobile phones

Telehealth specialist Docobo has developed a new mobile phone application enabling remote monitoring of patients with long term health conditions.

An extension of its existing doc@HOME system, the application is an integrated telehealth solution for the remote management of patients with long term conditions (LTCs), designed for people who need their LTCs monitored whilst still living active lifestyles.

It will provide the same functionality as Docobo's HealthHUB portable home monitor, enabling patients to record vital signs, symptoms and quality of life measures, before transferring them to the doc@HOME system.

Docobo’s managing director, Adrian Flowerday, told EHI Primary Care: “Some patients have less severe symptoms which allow them to live life in a more ordinary manner, and so do not want to be confined to answering systems through the HealthHUB portable home monitor.

“This is especially the case with young people, who lead busy lives, working and socialising and don’t want to be at home attached to a machine to send this vital set of information from. With the mobile phone application, patients have Telehealth at their convenience, able to answer a set of questions as and when they choose.”

In the same way that HealthHUB transfers data securely to doc@HOME, the Java based mobile application will provide the user with a series of questions, answerable at the user’s convenience, and then submit the results to the doc@HOME database.

Once captured, trust officials can view the data and take necessary action should there be a cause for concern.

“We have made the application as seamless as possible, so users can easily follow instructions and download the application in the same easy as they would a game or ringtone. Doctors can then view this data as they would form patients already using the HealthHUB system.

“Many patients will find this service will help to empower them in their own treatment which could have other benefits such as cutting down on unnecessary visits to the GP or clinic. Many of them lead extremely active lives and the mobile phone is a simple, convenient and effective way of collecting essential data,” said Flowerday.

Interactive and personalized software built into the mobile solution will provide patients with feedback from their clinician once received.

Available now, the product will be demonstrated to existing customers in the next few weeks. Docobo claim that already doc@HOME has saved patients from having to spend time visiting healthcare settings and has reduced out of hours calls and unnecessary hospital admissions.

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