High-Tech Gadgets and Your Health: A Beautiful, Empowering Thing

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a geek–especially when it comes to gadgets. And when high-tech gadgets and healthcare merge, all in the name of patient empowerment–who could ask for anything more.

What’s the big deal, you ask?

Well, your grocery list soon could look like this: bread, milk, medical info storage device. That’s right. Kroger’s, the grocery store chain, soon will be selling a flash drive that will store all of a patient’s personal health records, from allergies to insurance to past surgeries. Medflash, will go on sale at 103 Kroger stores in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky next week and cost $29.95.

And parents may finds some redeeming value to text messaging craze–especially if their teen is forgetting to take medication. But some hip, cool and cell-phone savvy doctors in Cincinnati (Hmm. Cinncinnati is really on the forefront these days) are studying whether text messages might help teens adhere to their medication regimens, the AP recently reported.

Brilliant, I say–especially when research has shown that on average, only 50% of adolescents properly follow treatment and as little as 30% of teens take asthma medication correctly. Yikes!

Pilot testing of the text message medication reminders began recently, and a full study is set to begin later this year.

How does it work? Well, teen participants indicate when they want to receive the reminder, and a clinic volunteer types out the message at that time.

According to the AP, if the text message reminders work for asthma, they might also work for other diseases.

But my favorite hi-tech gadget story of the week is definitely the one in the New York Times about Nintendo’s WiiFit:

“Wii Fit’s almost 50 exercises are divided among four categories: strength training, aerobics, balance games and yoga. Each user creates a personal profile, including a potential weight loss (or gain) goal. The system tracks a user’s weight and body-mass index as well as their performance on individual exercises. To help prevent novices from overextending or frustrating themselves, only a few exercises are initially available in each category; more advanced activities are unlocked only after completing simpler options.”

Now, even though the reviewers stated it was a good product for exercise novices and kids (as opposed to athletes and more advanced exercisers) I’m all for getting people off the couch and moving. And I can totally see this connected to a PHR…so all of your workout data–time, calories burned, heart rate could  go right into your personal health record. Ah, the possibilities for patient empowerment are endless.

–Jacqueline Gaulin