Patients suffering from chronic obstructive disease (COPD) can now benefit from a new mHealth program, Me&MyCOPD, which may help them improve their health and quality of life by providing personalized coaching and accurate information about their condition and treatment, according to a recent press release from Exco InTouch, one of the companies involved in its development.
Me&MyCOPD is the result of a joint project between Exco InTouch, a company specializing in digital devices and programs applied to diseases, and AstraZeneca, a leading pharmaceutical company.
According to Michelle Maxwell at Select Science, through the use of interactive mobile and internet-based tools, COPD patients, as well as their caregivers and healthcare providers, will be able to “collect, transmit and review” all of their clinical information, from their real-time health conditions to any possible deterioration in health, exacerbations, or their reactions to medication.
Through the use of the program, patients can enhance their knowledge about their disease and their understanding about their personal reactions to it. As a result they can manage to leave with it in a more effective way. At the same time, the same information can be used by their healthcare providers who can adjust training and goals, treatments and medications, and can prevent or determine the need of a hospitalization.
To Mark Brincat, director of product strategy of Eco InTouch, Me&myCOPD is a way to improve “informed decisions” and “patient welfare and quality of life” and also an opportunity to reduce healthcare costs, since patients are less likely to have “unplanned hospital admissions,” he explained.
“Intelligent Pharmaceuticals” seems to be the future for therapies and drugs. Companies are working on products like ME&MyCOPD to help patients not just to treat, but also to manage their health.
For Tim Davis, CEO and founder of Exco InTouch, AstraZeneca has taken the lead in this new approach and “is the leading example of how optimized treatment can improve patient’s quality of life and health outcomes.”
This isn’t the first time that researchers have leveraged internet-based and mHealth programs in order to improve outcomes for patients. Using a different approach, an interactive walking app was developed to monitor and motivate COPD patients to engage in physical activity in an effort to improve their quality of life.