Facebook as a medical solution
August 25, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
IOWA CITY, IOWA – The sky seems to be the limit in terms of applications for the popular social-networking site Facebook. Now one University of Iowa doctor is using the site to help get his patients to take their medications.
For young transplant patients, often between the ages of 13 and 21, keeping up-to-date on their medications may be the last thing on their mind.
“Often they’ve had chronic illnesses. They want to be like their peers, which I don’t blame them, so sometimes they forget to take their medications,” Patrick Brophy M.D. University of Iowa Children’s Hospital said.
Falling behind on meds could mean losing a vital organ like a kidney. Patrick Brophy, a doctor at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, was discussing the problem at home when his son came up with a solution.
“He kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, why don’t you just put it up on Facebook?’ And I said, ‘That’s a pretty good idea,’” Brophy said.
Brophy helped develop new software called Iowa Medminder.
The Facebook application shows patients a list of all the medications and the frequency in which they should be taking them for a given day.
“Some kids are on three medications, twice a day. Some are on 10 medications, twice a day,” he said.
The patients then check off the medications when they take them. The information is then sent to a secure hospital health care server for doctors to monitor.
“If they don’t take it, hopefully we’ll be able to set up a notification system to either text them through their phones or email them,” he said.
That information compared with later blood tests for drug levels will help doctors determine if patients have really been taking their medications. Brophy says he’s been contacted by providers from the United States and Canada, interested in his idea.
“There’s so many potential applications of this thing, and I think it’s got legs of its own,” he said.
A possible glimpse of the future of better health care delivery. Officials are working to meet privacy laws. The information will only appear on the patient’s Facebook page and not for others to see. The software was funded by a grant.
(Copyright © 2011 NBC Universal, All Rights Reserved)
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