In partnership with Pfizer Life, BackCare have recently produced an App for iPhone, iPad and iPod which distils and delivers the wisdom of the best back health care practitioners alongside exercise videos and fact sheets.
BackCare is the UK’s only charity solely aimed at reducing the impact of back pain on society.
Just come across O2 Health on the web – committed to supporting the NHS amidst growing demands on services, increased expectations and unsustainable increases in the cost of delivering care.
Their case study page gives some interesting uses of mobile technology within healthcare including a Home Delivery and Monitoring System (HDMS) for Haemophilia patients which improved quality of life and care for patients…..
Guided imagery is a gentle but powerful technique that focuses and directs the imagination.
Health Journeys have recently introduced a new format for listening to guided imagery: a durable, preloaded audio player with high quality sound that works in any environment, called Playaway.
Health Journeys Playaway Website
Source : Kip Jones
Have recently come across the Livestrong Calorie Tracker App for the iPhone via this months UK edition of Wired
Admittedly, the GUI isn’t perfect and it’s started to intermittently crash when used in the last couple of days but as a way of tracking your calorific input it’s been pretty good so far.
I think it has much to offer regarding wider health benefits and applications in QOL improvement and dietary management as it’s pretty easy to use.
My article on “A patient centred framework for improving LTC quality of life through Web 2.0 technology” has now been published in the latest edition of the Health Informatics Journal (Volume 16 Issue 1: March 2010).
The Health Informatics Journal provides an international forum for the exchange of practice, innovation and research. Representing the interdisciplinary nature of health informatics, the journal publishes peer reviewed contributions from the fields of informatics and telematics, the health professions, computer science, engineering and management.
An investigation into factors which may lead to an improvement in the Quality of Life for people with a particular Long Term Condition through the use of Web 2.0 Technology
Demands for a greater degree of control and influence over personal health and healthcare (DoH 2008b. p.3) and governmental policy have resulted in the current NHS Operating Framework (DoH 2007, p.2) identifying the need for sustained focus on information management and technology in the NHS to deliver better, safer care.
In 2005, the NHS and Social Care Model – a blueprint to support organisations in improving local services for people with long-term conditions (LTC) – was published (DoH, p.9). For the delivery framework, it was noted that available options which health and social care communities could use to support people with LTC might include sets of technological tools (DoH 2008a, p.45). These could be technology that supported personalised care and choice, helped people remain independent and provided resources and support for patients to self-care and self manage.
Computer technology of the type termed Web 1.0 could be defined as the ability to connect computers and make information available, as opposed to Web 2.0, which connects people and facilitates new kinds of collaboration. Geographically displaced users can connect through social networks to others with the same chronic condition (Seeman 2008). Meanwhile, websites utilising Web 2.0 technology seek to improve the quality of users lives by offering support and information about treatment for and coping with chronic illnesses (Birnsteel 2008b, Fernandez 2008).
Current definitions concerning the integration of health information and support with Web 2.0 technology (Landro 2006, Shreeve 2008, Holt 2008, O’Grady 2008, Eysenbach 2008) are primarily concerned with approaches from a healthcare or medical perspective. They do not effectively consider how this might work from the viewpoint of the patient and also fail to consider how patients could already be using Web 2.0 technology or might want to adapt it in the future. There is a need to design a patient centered framework, encapsulating the use of Web 2.0 technology for people with LTC who might want to support, mitigate or improve their own quality of life. The primary research question and hypothesis are therefore:
Primary Research Question
Does Web 2.0 technology foster, hinder or have no impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in people with a particular (to be specified) LTC?
An interesting blog post on the iPad and potential uses for health and wellness from the saatchi and saatchi wellness blog…….
Press Release and News Story from Bournemouth University on my Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness article “Twitter as a tool for delivering improved quality of life for people with chronic conditions”…..
Article doi: 10.1111/j.1752-9824.2009.01027.x
Nursing Times article on my Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness article “Twitter as a tool for delivering improved quality of life for people with chronic conditions”…..
Article doi: 10.1111/j.1752-9824.2009.01027.x
Here is the SimpleMind mindmap of my presentation from Handheld Learning 2009 created on iPhone (it’s too big to see in this post so I’ve attached it as a link).
SimpleMind is a great free easy to use application which you can then upload to iPhoto – shame it wasn’t really big enough to hand around at the conference round table so I resorted to a paper version.
