Health IT

Dear Zainab
 
I am developing telemedicine project, which at first was part of my monograph, specializing in telecommunication system, "Transmission of signals in blood pressure via the mobile network, used the Monitor Microlife and its proprietary software, the collection of data is processed and sent to the software, which can be installed on the netbook, generates file: xml and CVS, I chose to export the CVS and transfer it via FTP to the server, and one of the safer, access authentication, and may transfer via email to the physician in charge
 
Romano

Dear Romano,

That is very amazing, have you considered the fact that data has to be sent to the physician with complete patient information. Even if you can send the blood pressure information via mobile phone, a doctor sees many patients and cannot remember them all. The trick is to link the blood pressure data being transferred via mobile phone to first be incorporated in the patient's Electronic Medical Record ( this should already exist) because the doctor also needs to compare previous readings also. One blood pressure reading would not suffice.

Hi Zainab,

You wrote:

"... if the data is sent to a secure data base, it will not be benifitting the patient."

The BloodPressure123.co.uk system allows the patient to log into the website to view their blood pressure history on charts and reports, and print them off or export them, for their doctor.

Although it does not automatically connect to a patients medical record, it is there to be viewed by the patient at any time. One thing that may be useful is to allow the patient to provide a 'read-only' password to their doctor, so the doctor can log in and view the charts on the website based on the patients data.

Dear Micheal,

I do agree with what you've said, and the patient would benefit. But consider this.. Two different senarios, you have on one hand a normal reading which is sent to a secure data base, and is viewed by the patient. he/ she is aware of their blood pressure readings. That's good.. a good preventive/ risk management measure. Now the other senario being that the reading is abnormal... the reading is sent to the physician via sms. Now as a physician, these are my questions:
1. Pt. BP is high.. what was his/her last reading?
2. is he/she a cardiac patient also?
3. are there any co-morbids?
4. what medication is he/she on?
5. What's the age group? gender?
6. Location of patient ( hospital or home).

Please consider, that even a chart of BP monitoring is incomplete without the whole picture. But your idea for read only rights for patients is good and would be ideal to ensure data security.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sharing. Interesting concept! My only concern is that the service
may be a bit overpriced. It may be difficult to convince the user to pay
4.95 pounds (roughly $10) for a monthly subscription (plus the cost of
sending the SMS) for a service that can be obtained through several FREE
iphone/android apps available in the market. ... Some of these apps not
only keep track of BP, but they also map it in the form of interesting
graphs and give instantaneous feedback, without the patients having to log
on to a server. Some apps also transmit the information directly to the
patients medical records. So I am interested in knowing in what way is this
service better than some of the existing solutions in the market.

Regards,

Vishal

Hi guys,

Thanks for your posts. You may be right about the pricing. The final pricing has not yet been finalized, I am still in the process of discovering what is a fair price for the service and will lower this price if people find it too high.

There were literally hundreds of development/programming hours invested in building the system, and there are ongoing costs involved in running such a service, so I cannot offer this service for free but hope to get a return on investment with a fair price once launched.

That's a fair point about iPhone apps that record blood pressure. I myself do not own a smartphone, and I'm sure there are many others like me who also do not. Perhaps iPhone users will prefer an iPhone app over this system but I presume there are many like me who do not.

There is an advantage that this system offers over an app on a smartphone such as iPhone - your data is never lost. If you loose an iPhone, or one day decide to get a new non-iPhone phone, you loose your data, whereas with BloodPressure123.co.uk your data is there forever ...

Hi guys,

Thanks for your posts. You may be right about the pricing. The final pricing has not yet been finalized, I am still in the process of discovering what is a fair price for the service and will lower this price if people find it too high.

There were literally hundreds of development/programming hours invested in building the system, and there are ongoing costs involved in running such a service, so I cannot offer this service for free but hope to get a return on investment with a fair price once launched.

That's a fair point about iPhone apps that record blood pressure. I myself do not own a smartphone, and I'm sure there are many others like me who also do not. Perhaps iPhone users will prefer an iPhone app over this system but I presume there are many like me who do not.

There is an advantage that this system offers over an app on a smartphone such as iPhone - your data is never lost. If you loose an iPhone, or one day decide to get a new non-iPhone phone, you loose your data, whereas with BloodPressure123.co.uk your data is there forever - regardless of your phone.
As for the cost of sending a SMS - many people like myself are on a phone plan which includes a cap, so sending 7 SMS's extra per week is not an extra cost as it is included in the cap.

I created this system because I wanted a more convenient way of recording my blood pressure - instead of a spreadsheet which is what I was doing.

I understand your scepticism on the value of this service, and appreciate your comments.
I don't assume that this will be used by 100% of high blood pressure sufferers, but I do believe there are a large number of people who would benefit from this service

I do see your point about the value of a system that automatically connects to medical records. I do not at this stage have plans of including this, however in future I do plan on enhancing the system to allow doctors to have their own login. This will enable them to view their patients charts (read-only) given the permission from the patient.

Sorry for the long post, but one more thing - BloodPressure132.co.uk will send out weekly SMS/email messages which will alert patients of their average blood pressure for the week, how they compared to the previous week, month etc. and other useful analysis.

Cheers,
Michael