Design and Development of a Mobile Medical Application for the Management of Chronic Diseases: Methods of Improved Data
The application of already widely available mobile phones would provide medical professionals with an additional possibility of outpatient care, which may reduce medical cost at the same time as providing support to elderly people suffering from chronic d
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University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM, A-8020 Graz, Austria School of Information Management Digital Media Technologies Laboratory [email protected] 2 Medical University Graz, 8036 Graz, Austria Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics & Documentation (IMI) Research Unit HCI4MED [email protected]
Abstract. The application of already widely available mobile phones would provide medical professionals with an additional possibility of outpatient care, which may reduce medical cost at the same time as providing support to elderly people suffering from chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension. To facilitate this, it is essential to apply user centered development methodologies to counteract opposition due to the technological inexperience of the elderly. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a mobile medical application to help deal with chronic diseases in a home environment. The application is called MyMobileDoc and includes a graphical user interface for patients to enter medical data including blood pressure; blood glucose levels; etc. Although we are aware that sensor devices are being marketed to measure this data, subjective data, for example, pain intensity and contentment level must be manually input. We included 15 patients aged from 36 to 84 (mean age 65) and 4 nurses aged from 20 to 33 (mean age 26) in several of our user centered development cycles. We concentrated on three different possibilities for number input. We demonstrate the function of this interface, its applicability and the importance of patient education. Our aim is to stimulate incidental learning, enhance motivation, increase comprehension and thus acceptance. Keywords: User centered development, Mobile usability, Patient compliance, Patient education, Mobile learning, Elderly people.
1 Introduction and Motivation The demographical structure in many industrial countries tends towards an increasing population of elderly people. Within the next 20 years, around 25% of the population in European countries will be aged 65 and more [1]. Consequently, whatever progress in health conditions we expect, an increase in care within the next decades is required. This increasing average age of the total population inclines towards a subsequent rise A. Holzinger (Ed.): USAB 2007, LNCS 4799, pp. 119–132, 2007. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
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of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and in conjunction with today’s life expectancy, a dramatic raise in medical costs. CODE-2 Study. According to the results of the Costs Of Diabetes in Europe Type 2 study [2], which analyzed the financial expenditures for managing specific diabetesrelated complications and long-term effects, the annual expense incurred due to type 2 diabetes in Germany averages 4600 Euros per patient. Only seven percent of these costs are spent on medication, and over 50 percent account for the treatment of complications. At the same time, only 26 percent of patien
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