Boston area doctors are relying more on mobile apps and social media to keep tabs on their youngest patients — giving new insight into a group whose health updates can get lost in translation, experts say.
"Children use behaviors and code language at times to communicate symptoms that wouldn't be used by adults," said Dr. Alisa Niksch, a pediatric cardiologist at Tufts Medical Center. "It is very difficult to interpret, and they need that extra tool to help discern what's happening."
Niksch said she tracks about 15 to 20 of her patients using an AliveCor monitor and free mobile app which collects data with a heart-monitoring device that reads activity from the patient's fingertips or chest wall and attaches to a mobile phone.
"Parents of children with heart issues are afraid that things like an irregular heartbeat won't be caught early enough," she said. "It's important to get some actually objective data."
It's not just patients with physical ailments who benefit from remote monitoring, according to Dr. Marilyn Augustyn, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, who gets updates on patients with Attention Deficit Disorder through an app from Boston-based startup mehealth for ADHD.
The app allows doctors to gather more information for diagnosis and assessment, Augustyn said, and gives teachers and parents easier ways to report their own observations.
"It's really useful for children with certain behavioral and developmental problems to see them in different settings. I may see them in my office, but that's not where they live or where they learn," she said.
Ken Tubman, chief technology officer for Optimal Medicine and its mehealth for ADHD app — which was founded in 2009 and gained venture capital funding in 2012 — said health apps are gaining traction with doctors.
"Health care is a growing industry, especially in software," he said. "As far as I can tell, it'll continue to grow over the next 10 years or so."
Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of Partners Center for Connected Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, which conducts research on health care outside of medical centers, said using tools like apps and social media can be especially useful for teenagers, who are most comfortable with digital interactions.
He said the center just wrapped up a yearlong study that used Facebook to connect teens with asthma to one another, which helped them be more in tune with their illness, and as a result they were more aware of their symptoms.
"During the trial, the kids were so enthusiastic that we had to ask for an extension on the study because they didn't want to leave the group," he said.
He added that using technology like apps can also be effective in diagnosing and managing autism spectrum disorders, because different cues are used to make assessments.
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