Next Generation Technology for Chronic Care Self Managenment

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As the population ages, chronic care becomes increasingly important. The contrast to acute care is significant: a physician can often address acute problems with prescriptions and/or procedures, but this is often not the case for chronic problems that persist day after day, hour after hour. Since it is impractical for most people to hire a live-in nurse, those that suffer with chronic illness must help manage their conditions. Each day, patients decide what they are going to eat, whether they will exercise, and to what extent they will take prescribed medications. While computer-based tools allow patients to better manage their chronic conditions, they have inherent limitations. For most people home computers are stationary machines that are occasionally visited as time permits. People with busy lives may often go many days between using their computer. Consequently, the impact of personal computers on the self management of chronic problems is starting to plateau. Fortunately, we are on the verge of a technical revolution in personal computing that should become as significant to self management as personal computers were a decade ago. Cell phones, which have quickly become ubiquitous, are becoming much more than devices with which to make phone calls. Recently, several manufacturers have released models that play videos as well as provide a very capable Internet connection. Service providers offer a variety of "on-demand" services. It is now possible to watch television programs and movies on your cell phone. What does this mean for chronic care? Self management tools may now go where patients go. In other words, they can be mobile providing on- the-spot information when people desire assistance in decision making. Aware of this trend, health care providers are creating "mobile editions" of their web sites and Internet-based tools. These editions, while similar to their predecessors, are optimized for small cell phone screens and keypad input. Increasingly, media and tools that use to be accessed by wired home computers may now be accessed wirelessly by cell phones. What is missing is a mechanism for patients to use their medical devices with their cell phones as they did with their home computer. It is the goal of this project to start the development of medical devices that will allow full utilization of this new capability. The rising cost of American health care continues to plague public and private payers. This is prompting the examination of new ways for people to manage chronic conditions for themselves and their loved ones. The goal of this program is to promote health-related behavior on a daily bases.