Patent Application
20160203284
The field of the subject matter is a mobile application for use with patients, especially younger patients, such as children, pre-teenagers, teenagers and young adults, who have a chronic illness.
Chronic conditions require patients to manage their care over a long period of time. Research exists that patient self-management skills are crucial to their understanding and involvement with their health (Clark and Paraska, 2013). There are a number of ways to handle this type of patient self-management from providing written information that is sent home with the patient and/or patient's caregivers/family, providing nurse and nurse practitioner hotlines for the patient to call, and providing walk-in clinic information, if the patient isn't physically located near his or her doctor.
Clearly, however, there are significant needs for patients with chronic illnesses who are not being addressed by current patient interaction systems. For example, chronic conditions may require information that is updated daily or even hourly depending on the patient's current symptoms or condition. The patient may not live near his or her primary care physician or near a clinic, so that a “drop-in visit” is not convenient. The patient may travel domestically or internationally on a regular basis, such that normally he or she would need to map out clinics, secure doctors in advance and take various medications with him or her in order to be prepared for any need while traveling. The patient may not be able to carry written information with him or her all the time and may not be able to access it easily and reliably, especially if there are more than 5-10 pages of information for the condition. Therefore, there are needs by patients with chronic illnesses that are not being addressed or able to be addressed by conventional methods and protocols.
The term mHealth refers to the virtual world of “mobile computing, medical sensor, and communications technologies” that expands healthcare for chronic disease beyond the healthcare provider's office (Eng and Lee, 2013). Healthcare education as it has existed wasn't designed to teach or interact with today's technology savvy young patients. In comparison to 10 years ago, there has been an exponential increase in the number of children using cell phones. Roughly 78% of teenager's ages 12-17 now have cellphones, and half of those are smartphones (Madden, et al, 2013).
Children, as young as 2 years old navigate their own potty training with “The Pull Ups Big Kid App” by Huggies®. It is imperative that healthcare embrace mobile technologies to remain “plugged” into patients' needs, along with addressing significant needs in the area of patient care. Findings from the Institute for Healthcare Informatics 2013 report on 40,000 healthcare apps did not identify any software applications for children with chronic illnesses. Healthcare mobile applications or mobile apps designed for children with chronic illnesses have the potential to address a growing demographic of young healthcare recipients, while at the same time addressing most, if not all, of the problems described earlier with conventional patient care. Transitional care management from adolescence to adult is complex for patients and transition care givers (Kelly, 2014).
mHealth apps could encourage a child's understanding of their own health, perceived self-efficacy, and improve long-term management of their chronic condition. In addition, there is an opportunity with these applications to provide regular interactivity, including 24/7 interactivity in some embodiments, and patient care as the child gets older and transitions into being an adult. A brief Google search was conducted to determine what apps are currently available for children with chronic conditions (Table 1). Mobile apps for common illnesses such as diabetes were found. Websites that provide reviews of mobile apps for children with chronic illness were identified (Table 2). There was a lack of research on the use of health apps for children and for uncommon chronic illnesses, such as Thalassemia, where this kind of innovation would be necessary and useful.
Therefore, it would be ideal to develop an interactive and patient-specific application for a mobile device that allows a health practitioner and a patient to interact in a number of ways designed to make the patient experience more comprehensive and health-driven, including providing games and learning modules for children and young adults, where these transition as the child ages, the ability to find the patient and provide information about specific physicians, pharmacies and clinics in the patient's immediate area, track medication, set specific alarms for the patient's medication and adjust the medication, if the patient misses a dose, along with other useful interactive functionality.
Systems for providing a chronically ill patient with medical alerts, pharmacological alerts and information are disclosed that includes: a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver, the mobile device programmed to process encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information through an application; a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock and a server communication transceiver that receives input from the wireless communication transceiver of the mobile device, the memory having encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information stored therein for a plurality of chronically ill patients, the central processing unit programmed to: receive encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; analyze the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; generate a new set of unique and revised encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information; provide the new set of unique and revised encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device updates the application with the unique and revised encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information, which is then accessible by a user of the mobile device.
In other embodiments, a system for providing a chronically ill patient with medical alerts, pharmacological alerts and information that includes: a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver, the mobile device programmed to process encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information through an application; a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock and a server communication transceiver that receives input from the wireless communication transceiver of the mobile device, the memory having encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information stored therein for a plurality of chronically ill patients, the central processing unit programmed to: receive encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; receive GPS information from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device; analyze the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; determine location information for a medical facility, healthcare provider or pharmacy utilizing the GPS information from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device and the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; and provide the location information to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device notifies a user of the mobile device of this location information.
At California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) School of Nursing attention is being focused on nursing informatics which includes electronic medical records and mobile applications across the nursing curriculum. To meet this growing need Dr. Kohlbry, a nursing faculty, initiated an option for a class assignment for undergraduate nursing students in a health promotion class to work on a project to create the conceptual functionality and design of a mobile app for children with a chronic illness, such as the blood disorder, Thalassemia. The faculty and students discussed the needs of children, parents, and practitioners with Susan Carson, RN, MSN, CPNP, Lead Nurse Practitioner of the Thalassemia Program in the Hematology Program, at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Carson described one of the most important considerations for children with Thalassemia is the difficulty in the transition period from childhood to adulthood. Motivating, engaging, and educating children is the first step to overcoming potential challenges they may face. It is important to foster treatment adherence and establish support beyond parent's oversight, long before the transition period occurs.
As a result of this work, an interactive and patient-specific application has been conceptualized for a mobile device that allows a health practitioner and a patient to interact in a number of ways designed to make the patient experience more comprehensive and health-driven, including providing games and learning modules for children and young adults, where these transition as the child ages, the ability to find the patient and provide information about specific physicians, pharmacies and clinics in the patient's immediate area, track medication, set specific alarms for the patient's medication and adjust the medication, if the patient misses a dose, along with other useful interactive functionality.
As mentioned earlier and throughout this disclosure, the work conducted on the application and how it can be utilized made it immediately apparent that the contemplated application could be utilized for other chronic illnesses, because the overriding feature of chronic illness is that they do not heal or are cured quickly, they require constant monitoring, and it can be difficult to regularly and properly monitor and treat it for patients who are younger and/or not as mature as an adult. Therefore, contemplated applications are not merely abstract ideas that are being implemented by a computer, but instead require significantly more in the way of data and performance models.
To further explore potential features of a mobile app for children 8-16 years of age with Thalassemia, the nursing faculty and students collaborated with Dr. Youwen Ouyang, a faculty in the CSUSM Computer Science Department, along with several of her students. Through story boarding, the team has identified several key pieces of functionality for a contemplated application, including a calendar function to help patients keeping track of their appointments, and a messaging feature to allow patients to send a text to their provider (
Specifically, as a result of this work systems for providing a chronically ill patient with medical and pharmacological alerts and information were developed that are shown in
In other embodiments, a system for providing a chronically ill patient with medical alerts, pharmacological alerts and information that includes: a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver 215, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver, the mobile device programmed to process encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information through an application; a server comprising a central processing unit, a memory, a clock and a server communication transceiver that receives input from the wireless communication transceiver of the mobile device, the memory having encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information stored therein for a plurality of chronically ill patients, the central processing unit programmed to: receive encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; receive GPS information 217 from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device; analyze the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; determine 290 location information for a medical facility, healthcare provider or pharmacy 295 utilizing the GPS information from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device and the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information 280 from the mobile device; and provide the location information to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device notifies a user of the mobile device of this location information.
Contemplated mobile devices comprise a GPS receiver, a display, a microprocessor and a wireless communication transceiver, the mobile device programmed to process encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information through an application. It is understood that many contemplated mobile devices also contain Wi-Fi or Bluetooth protocol. Contemplated mobile devices include tablets, smart phones, laptops, wireless masks or glasses, watches, bracelets and any other suitable device.
As mentioned, one of the key components of the current system is encrypted medical data, medical tags, medical information or a combination thereof, which may comprise dosage regimens that are patient-specific and not generalized for the condition or disease, condition or disease-related information that is tailored specifically for the individual patent, based on his or her gender, age, weight, location, IQ and other patient-specific indicators. Contemplated information may also include information-based games designed to help children and young people with chronic illnesses or diseases with an understanding of their conditions.
A contemplated server comprises a central processing unit, a memory, a clock and a server communication transceiver that receives input from the wireless communication transceiver of the mobile device. In some embodiments, a contemplated server may be a stand-alone unit or a series of units that are stored in one location. In another contemplated embodiment, a contemplated server may be a system of servers that are located in one facility or in multiple facilities. Contemplated servers may also include Cloud-based functionality, where some of the information isn't stored locally, but instead stored in a virtual server. In some embodiments, contemplated servers are programmed to provide the unique and revised encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information to a physician, nurse practitioner, health care practitioner, pharmacy or another health care related facility or practitioner.
Contemplated memory comprises or contains encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information stored therein for a plurality of chronically ill patients, wherein the central processing unit of the server is programmed to: receive encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; receive GPS information from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device; analyze the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; determine location information for a medical facility, healthcare provider or pharmacy utilizing the GPS information from the wireless communication transceiver from the mobile device and the encrypted medical data, medical tags and medical information from the mobile device; and provide the location information to the mobile device, wherein the mobile device notifies a user of the mobile device of this location information.
A critical component of the contemplated systems is to support patients in the administration of their medication at home. Each child will work with their healthcare providers to set up a customized medication schedule on their device. Such schedule will provide helpful information about the prescribed medications; including dosage, frequency, benefits for adhering to the schedule, warnings for missing dosage, and any special instructions for medication administration. The customized medication schedule will trigger specialized alarms that remind the patient about their medications. Patient's responses to these alarms will be tracked to monitor their medication adherence and be associated with the reward system.
Contemplated systems and applications can also contain functionality that allows the patient to identify clinics and healthcare providers that are in the patient's area when he or she is traveling. This specific functionality is tied to the GPS receiver in the mobile device. In some embodiments, the patient may turn on the GPS receiver in the mobile device and specifically search for information. In some embodiments, if the patient leaves the GPS receiver active in the mobile device, the application may provide this information on an on-going basis without prompting from the patient. This is important, especially if the patient has an emergency and does not have time to walk through turning on the GPS receiver, waiting for the application to locate the patient and provide information.
This functionality is ideal and crucial, in that if the patient has a chronic illness that isn't well known or commonly treated, the patient can identify the closest clinic or doctor who does have experience in this area. Contemplated systems and applications can also contain pharmacy-related functionality, so that if a patient needs a refill of medication, new medication or a change of medication, the healthcare provider can send that information to the app, whereby that information is forwarded to the patient's pharmacy, the nearest pharmacy, if the patient is traveling, and uploaded to the medication functionality on the app, so that the new protocol is implemented and the appropriate reminders set for the patient.
Contemplated systems comprise a scheduling component, so that healthcare practitioners can calendar follow-up visits or remind the patient to set up an appointment in the future. This functionality is ideal for younger patients, because they don't traditionally schedule their own appointments, but rely solely on their parents or guardians to handle this aspect of their lives.
In order to provide more incentive for children to engage in their own care, the app uses a reward system, such as a coin system, for the providers to award points for patients who keep their appointments. Successful collection of coins unlocks fun games for children such as Paint Bot and Mole Smasher. Another novel feature is the use of quizzes to test the patient's knowledge of his or her condition and to provide information tailored to the child's development and understanding of his or her condition. This feature allows doctors and nurses to provide information in a manner that is fun and engaging for the patient. This feature also allows doctors and nurses to provide updated or new information to the patient, when those resources and information become available in a way that is targeted to the patient.
As the child transitions into pre-teen, teen and young adult stages, contemplated mobile apps can transition with those patients. For example, some of the games and reward systems designed for younger children can be replaced by games and reward systems designed for older children and young adults. In addition, a comprehensive, long-term care protocol can be reliably mapped out and changed as needed for the patient as he or she gets older, grows and matures. Contemplated systems allow the patient and the doctor to be connected more reliably and in a manner that gives both the doctor and the patient flexibility of interaction.
Contemplated systems comprise a password or security component that requires the patient to log-in 340 to the system 320, as shown in
The use of mobile apps in healthcare for children remains a new and exciting field rich with creative possibilities. Using mHealth apps will foster the goal of providers to facilitate positive healthcare outcomes. By effectively engaging children, healthcare mobile apps hold the potential to enhance lifelong patient self-management, reduce healthcare costs, and improve patients' quality of life.
We want to acknowledge and thank Dr. Robert Yamashita, whose life work has been on the study of Thalassemia, for his encouragement in this projects undertaking to serve Thalassemia patients. His astute observations about Thalassemia, healthcare, clinics who serve these patients, and the quality of life of Thalassemia and chronic illness patients has been tremendously appreciated. We would also like to thank The California State University for the University Professional Development funding to support the research and development of the app. Finally, we would like to thank California State University—San Marcos for their support of our work.
Thus, specific embodiments of mobile applications for use with patients who have a chronic illness have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the disclosure herein. Moreover, in interpreting the specification, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.
This United States Utility Application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066535 filed on Oct. 21, 2014 and entitled “Mobile Application For Use With Young Patients Who Have A Chronic Illness”, which is commonly-owned and incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62066535 | Oct 2014 | US |
