#eproximiti

Dr. Jennifer Dyer, MD, MPH, who describes herself as a "stylish pediatric endocrinologist," is also known as something else to more than 6,000 followers on Twitter: an EndoGoddess. "Everybody with diabetes calls their doctor their Endo," she says, "and one of my little patients who calls herself a pink lady, she’s really just adorable and cute and sparkly, she’d always call me an EndoGoddess because I liked to be sparkly, too. So it just kind of stuck."

The name EndoGoddess has since inspired a massive Twitter following, a blog, and most recently an app tailored specifically to diabetes patients created in part by eProximiti, the same guys who are developing Duet Health. 

Dr. Dyer says the idea for the app came from the simple realization that teenagers like texting...a lot. 

"I had just read an article in a peer review journal called Pediatrics that was about how teenage liver transplant patients that were facing having to have another liver transplant actually remembered to take their medicine better when they got texts," she says. "And I thought it was really powerful because it saved quite a few liver transplants which is a humongous deal, so I thought well, maybe that would help with diabetes."

"I decided to text my patients so I texted them from my phone without any app or anything, and they did do better with their medicine. Their diabetes report card as I call it, it actually improved quite a bit, and for any kind of clinical trial or anything having to do with diabetes, it would be like a massive headline about the improvement that it made."

The EndoGoddess app, available now at the app store, allows you to record your glucose, dietary carbs, and insulin levels. The more consistently it is recorded, the more points you earn that can eventually be put towards buying songs on iTunes. The app also allows you to set reminders to record your data, view your history, and share your data.

It may seem like the app is tailored more towards a younger generation, but Dr. Dyer says tech-savvy patients of all ages have been using the app. Tracking your insulin levels in exchange for iTunes songs sounds like a pretty good deal to me. 

Dr. Dyer has already been hearing success stories from doctors who have patients using the app. 

"I actually just got an email from a physician in Portland, Oregon who has been recommending the EndoGoddess app to her patients Particularly her younger patients," she says. "And one of her patients who has had Type 1 diabetes for several years has just been really hating it, and when this doctor told her patient about this app, her face lit up."  

"It's just the fact that it’s part of something she loves, which is her phone. It actually allows her to integrate her diabetes into something that she loves, and that can make her be healthier."

"So not only is the girl, the patient, doing better, but the doctor was really excited to have a tool in her toolbox to offer this girl that understandably doesn’t want to have diabetes, but something that could give her joy. It’s rewarding on so many levels."

The idea of having interactive healthcare information right at your fingertips extends beyond just EndoGoddess. The Duet Health app coming at the end of the month is just another example in a growing industry. Mobile health in general is still a fairly new idea, but it's something Dr. Dyer is very excited about. She encourages more doctors to give mobile health a chance. 

"Mobile health is really new, and when things are new, doctors are kind of 'hmm' about it, but I think we’re still waiting for it to really explode on the scene," she says. "It hasn’t quite exploded on the scene in the way that I think it will. And I think it’ll be kind of like, how did we live without the internet? It’ll be sort of like that obvious infiltration into our lives, but right now it’s not there yet."

"Ultimately the reason a physician would want to use it is because it makes their patients healthier," she says. "(Using mobile health apps) primarily helps doctors by being a good tool for patients."

"I’d love to see more doctors doing this, and being part of this, and celebrating that we can make things better for our patients and it makes things better for us as doctors."

"But you do have to take a leap of faith, it does take a lot of courage, but it is way worth it."

OhioHealth recently rolled out a new smart phone application for women’s health, connecting patients to their obstetric and gynecological care with a stream of pertinent information between physician appointments. The goal of the women’s health application is to educate patients about their conditions and enhance communication with their physicians. Developed by OhioHealth physicians in partnership with Duet Health, a mobile software products company with solutions in health care.  The Duet Health app provides expectant mothers with text, images and videos about all aspects of their pregnancies – from timely appointment reminders to screening test explanations. The firm chose the name Duet Health because “the whole concept is you and your doctor together,” said company principal and co-founder Jeff Harper. The application also includes information about menopause, fertility and other women’s health issues. It is available as a free download from the iTunes store or the Android Marketplace.

“This is something that empowers patients to be more informed when they arrive for their office visits,” said OB/GYN Andrew Bokor, MD, Grant Medical Center, one of the first physicians to offer the application to his patients. “It links them to our office phones, provides directions to the hospitals where we deliver and gives them information 24/7 at their fingertips about the stages of fetal development or common pregnancy-related problems such as hemorrhoids. I don’t think there is any way it won’t improve quality of women’s health care and outcomes.”

A home screen personalizes the content with the patient’s due date that helps determine the timing of updates about gestation periods and screenings.  A “memo pad” enables patients to record notes about issues they want to address at their next office visit. About 60 patients at Grant Medical Center and Riverside Methodist Hospital began testing the application in March. “Their response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Dr. Bokor said. “They like the idea that they can have instant access at any time to trusted information on their phones.”

Dr. Bokor served on a physician task force with Riverside OB/GYN’s Mini Somasundaram, MD, and David Bell, MD, to develop content for Duet Health.  “So many people are going to the web for health care information that is not always reliable, where it is hard to tell the difference between fact and opinion,” Dr. Somasundaram said. “The application guarantees accurate, evidence-based answers to questions such as, ‘what kind of medications can I take’ or ‘what kind of test am I supposed to have next week.’ “

Added Dr. Bell: “Patients like the idea they can have quick access to content directed by OhioHealth physicians about concerns such as diet and weight gain. One of the application’s best features for physicians is our ability to transmit important notifications to patients about tests at the correct points in their pregnancies.”

OhioHealth began offering the women’s health application to a limited number of obstetrics patients in March and plans to expand to all obstetric patients by mid-April.  They are also preparing applications for orthopedics, sports medicine and other specialties. “We wanted to go down this path because the growing use of smart phones by our patient population is one area of patient education we have not tapped into,” said Mrunal Shah, MD, vice president, Physician Technology Services. “OhioHealth is always looking for opportunities to leverage technology to improve patient care and this is just another way to do that.”

“The fact is that many patients forget about 80% of what they were told in their office visit,” said Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael Krouse.  “Our goal is to be a trusted partner for better health, so we have to figure out ways to be available whenever the questions arise and provide timely information and reminders to our patients well outside the office visit.  Duet Health helps us deliver on that trusted partnership.”  Krouse emphasized that the Duet Health application does not exchange personal health information: “This is a HIPAA compliant application,” he said. “We’re very sensitive to privacy issues.”

Health Imaging and IT magazine in 2010 named OhioHealth to its list of the nation’s “Top 25 Connected Healthcare Facilities” for the third consecutive year. The healthcare data and consulting firm SDI recently ranked OhioHealth as one of the nation’s top integrated health networks. “Using health information technology to enhance the patient experience is what our initiatives such as the smart phone applications are all about,” said Krouse.

To learn more about the women’s health programs and services available from OhioHealth, please visit www.ohiohealth.com/womenshealth.

About OhioHealth Named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare organization serving and supported by the community. Based in Columbus, Ohio, it is a family of 18 hospitals, 23 health and surgery centers, home-health providers, medical equipment and health service suppliers throughout a 40-county area. OhioHealth hospitals in central Ohio are Riverside Methodist Hospital, Grant Medical Center, Doctors Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital and Dublin Methodist Hospital.