{"219131":{"#nid":"219131","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Leanne West: The Future Is Bright for mHealth","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe term \u2018mHealth\u2019 has gained traction recently as more and more people pay attention to the intersection between mobile technology and the healthcare sector. Various surveys estimate that there are about 40,000 to 75,000 health-related apps offered online, and a study by a mobile marketing body projected that mHealth would become a $26 billion industry by 2017.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E For the past few years, Georgia Tech\u2019s Landmarc Research Group has researched the development and deployment of mHealth systems, in anticipation of the time when such applications become standard. As director Leanne West explains, \u201cI personally believe that\u2019s truly going to be the way we\u2019re going to monitor health in the future, in addition to going to doctor\u2019s offices.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E To this end, Landmarc has helped develop various applications in the space. One of the most recent ones came about when the group noticed an emerging trend in the market.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cA lot of the companies we\u2019d been talking to had patient portals and doctor portals,\u201d notes West, \u201cbut there\u2019s another large component of a patient health, and that\u2019s the caregiver.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E With advice from health professionals, the group designed a caregiver app, iCare4U. The app monitors patient daily medical measurements and keeps track of vital stats over time. Caregivers are able to call the patient, doctor, or other designated contacts. The group is currently in discussions with a company about licensing the app for use.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cOne of the things they liked,\u201d says West, referring to testers, \u201cis that we kept [the interface] very simple, because the whole idea is to make the life of the caregiver more simple, not make it more complicated. Just giving them real basic information to let them know what\u2019s going on.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E The Landmarc Research Group is also involved with other mHealth applications such as the iTrem, a tool to track Parkinson\u2019s disease symptoms, and CellScope Oto, which turns the smartphone into an otoscope that can take high quality photos and transmit them to a medical professional.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E The sort of enhanced diagnostic care demonstrated by apps like iCare4u and the remotoscope is the beginning of more individualized health care, and points towards the next frontier for the Landmarc Group: home health monitoring.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cI think as the home health sensors become more and more prevalent smartphone applications [can] manage the data, collect data from sensors, and send it off to some central database or monitoring system,\u201d where doctors can examine it, she says.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E Skeptics might contend that this runs the risk of drowning doctors in a deluge of data, but West counters the idea by noting that such data is likely to help doctors make more informed decisions about their patient. Besides, she adds, if one includes doctors in the beginning of design, then \u201cyou are going to create something that they would be willing to use.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E Quickwins, a seed funding program coordinated by West, represents another face of the partnership between doctors and engineers. The program, a collaboration between Georgia Tech and Children\u2019s Hospital of Atlanta, enables doctors to partner with Georgia Tech researchers on developing solutions to health problems.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cWe call it Quickwins,\u201d explains West, \u201cbecause we want [these] to be a problem that can be solved in 18 months. From concept to [having tools] in-the hands of doctors and being used in 18 months.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E As a result of this and other efforts, she notes, they have \u201cseveral things... out in proposal right now. We\u2019re using text messaging to either educate a patient or help them remember to do something, to get info from them so you can monitor their project, so one-on one patient engagement. One thing we\u2019d really like to do is to develop a game for kids with pediatric cancer to prepare for radiation treatments.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E West believes that the future is bright for mHealth and home health monitoring, and that these developments will enable a more holistic approach to healthcare.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cI\u2019m excited about predictive diagnostics,\u201d she says. \u201cAs we move forward as a society people have all this information about themselves, so they can create their own personal baselines - you\u2019re not just falling into a range of the literature that may not really be your personal [range]. - really understanding the individual. Once you look at the data from all of these individuals, what then can you learn about that individual that can pre-empt some acute situations?\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cThat predictive capability that will come about once data starts being collected on a grander scale, that\u2019s pretty exciting.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27197","created_gmt":"2013-06-25 16:26:32","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:14:27","author":"Renata Le Dantec","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-06-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-06-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"69599","name":"IPaT"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["renata@ipat.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}