MONEY MATTERS IN HEALTH & TECH : Mastering health records with personal Apps

A patient with diabetes on routine medications is treated in Mtwara Region. He travels to Bukoba. Unfortunately, things go wrong with their blood sugar upon arrival. They suffer some complications and end up in a hospital where doctors don’t know anything about his past medical history.

If he is able to present them with his personal health record from his mobile phone, they would easily reach at the right diagnosis and proper care at a very short period of time. These are what we call Personal Health Records (PHR) Apps.

These technological advancements can help you create, maintain and store your personal medical records. These Apps give you access to your past and present medical records any time you are in need of them.

This is different from the daily practices where your health information is collected by your doctor and kept at a specific health facility and you cannot access them wherever you need them.

There are several approaches that patients can use in keeping their health records, paper based being the oldest.

This practice is still common to some patients who love keeping personal records. For example, every pregnant mother keeps her own records about her pregnancy through maternity period.

The other way is electronic-based. Patients here keep their personal health information via CD Rom, PCs and internet (web-base mobile app fall under this category). Recent data shows about 31 million people use personal health record Apps worldwide.

Personal health record Apps are much more common in developed and middle income countries like United states andUnited Kingdom.

At present South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda are among countries with this tech in use. In Tanzania, the government has forecasted the growth in use of this application and it has indeed created attractive environment for its this growth by developing the e-Health policy.

Good examples of these personal health Apps are My Medical, iTriage Health, and Afya Apps.

What sort of information can you keep in your personal health record Apps?

You can store as much information as you can. You can get your information plugged into your Apps by either asking your doctor to help feed them to your App, entering them yourself or both.

The Apps can have information about your chronic illnesses like TB, Diabetes and Hypertension; medical history; allergies, surgeries, lab results and other relevant information.

Importance of this personal health records App in healthcare delivery is significant.

Personal health record increases engagement of patients in their health care. People pay more attention to the healthcare services they receive. These stimulate patients to be more curious about the kind of care they receive.

Today, few people care to ask their doctors with regard to the treatment they receive at a health facility.

With introduction of these to our healthcare system, patients will be forced by circumstances to inquire a little bit more about their health care so that proper records can be kept. This will ensure patients’ information availability and continuity of care.

Personal health record Apps enhance doctor-patient relationships. Many PHR Apps allow direct, secure communication between patients and their providers.

This aspect is not common to the present health care structure. Patients are afraid of their doctors. There is a very large gap of communication between these two actors.

Some PHR Apps are coupled with reminders -- alarm systems that can remind you of anything linked to health care. They can tell you the time to take your pills, the date to attend your clinic etc.

Risks of use

There is an issue of privacy and confidentiality. These Apps are prone to hacking and it is no wonder that you find a confidential information viral on the internet. Legal restrictions are not tight enough to control misuse.

The call is to my fellow IT specialists from within the country to take this as an opportunity to venture.

We have so many entertainment and news mobile Apps in the country. Why don’t we shift the trend to begin launching health mobile Apps like these? It is time for action.

The author is a doctor,pursuing an MBA at St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT)