Related Research Articles
Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention. Disease and disability are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, and lifestyle choices, and are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primal, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
eHealth is a relatively recent healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication, dating back to at least 1999. Usage of the term varies as it covers not just "Internet medicine" as it was conceived during that time, but also "virtually everything related to computers and medicine". A study in 2005 found 51 unique definitions. Some argue that it is interchangeable with health informatics with a broad definition covering electronic/digital processes in health while others use it in the narrower sense of healthcare practice using the Internet. It can also include health applications and links on mobile phones, referred to as mHealth or m-Health.
Public health surveillance is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice." Public health surveillance may be used to track emerging health-related issues at an early stage and find active solutions in a timely manner. Surveillance systems are generally called upon to provide information regarding when and where health problems are occurring and who is affected.
The term diabetes includes several different metabolic disorders that all, if left untreated, result in abnormally high concentration of a sugar called glucose in the blood. Diabetes mellitus type 1 results when the pancreas no longer produces significant amounts of the hormone insulin, usually owing to the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Diabetes mellitus type 2, in contrast, is now thought to result from autoimmune attacks on the pancreas and/or insulin resistance. The pancreas of a person with type 2 diabetes may be producing normal or even abnormally large amounts of insulin. Other forms of diabetes mellitus, such as the various forms of maturity onset diabetes of the young, may represent some combination of insufficient insulin production and insulin resistance. Some degree of insulin resistance may also be present in a person with type 1 diabetes.
In medicine, patient compliance describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Most commonly, it refers to medication or drug compliance, but it can also apply to other situations such as medical device use, self care, self-directed exercises, or therapy sessions. Both patient and health-care provider affect compliance, and a positive physician-patient relationship is the most important factor in improving compliance. Access to care plays a role in patient adherence, whereby greater wait times to access care contributing to greater absenteeism. The cost of prescription medication also plays a major role.
A chronic condition is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Common chronic diseases include diabetes, functional gastrointestinal disorder, eczema, arthritis, asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Lyme disease, autoimmune diseases, genetic disorders and some viral diseases such as hepatitis C, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and stroke. An illness which is lifelong because it ends in death is a terminal illness. It is possible and not unexpected for an illness to change in definition from terminal to chronic. Diabetes and HIV for example were once terminal yet are now considered chronic due to the availability of insulin for diabetics and daily drug treatment for individuals with HIV which allow these individuals to live while managing symptoms.
Self-care has been defined as the process of taking care of oneself with behaviors that promote health and active management of illness when it occurs. Individuals engage in some form of self-care daily with food choices, exercise, sleep, and dental care. While the concept of self care has received increased attention in recent years, it has ancient origins. Socrates has been credited with founding the self-care movement in ancient Greece, and care are of oneself and loved ones has been shown to exist since human beings appeared on earth. Self-care remains a primary form of healthcare worldwide.
Health literacy is the ability to obtain, read, understand, and use healthcare information in order to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment. There are multiple definitions of health literacy, in part, because health literacy involves both the context in which health literacy demands are made and the skills that people bring to that situation.
Dysbiosis is characterized by a disruption to the microbiome resulting in an imbalance in the microbiota, changes in their functional composition and metabolic activities, or a shift in their local distribution. For example, a part of the human microbiota such as the skin flora, gut flora, or vaginal flora, can become deranged, with normally dominating species underrepresented and normally outcompeted or contained species increasing to fill the void. Dysbiosis is most commonly reported as a condition in the gastrointestinal tract, particularly during small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or small intestinal fungal overgrowth (SIFO).
An e-patient is a health consumer who participates fully in his/her medical care, primarily by gathering information about medical conditions that impact them and their families, using the Internet and other digital tools. The term encompasses those who seek guidance for their own ailments and the friends and family members who go online on their behalf. E-patients report two effects of their health research: "better health information and services, and different, but not always better, relationships with their doctors."
Online health communities are online social networks related to health. They primarily provide a means for patients and their families to learn about illnesses, to seek and offer social support, and to connect with others in similar circumstances. These online groups can be composed of individuals with illnesses, groups of medical professionals with shared interests, non-professional caregivers and family of patients, or a combination. The term "online health community" is primarily academic jargon.
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with research, prevention, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inactivity, chronic stress, and self-destructive behaviors including the consumption of tobacco products and drug or alcohol abuse.
mHealth is an abbreviation for mobile health, a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wearable devices such as smart watches, for health services, information, and data collection. The mHealth field has emerged as a sub-segment of eHealth, the use of information and communication technology (ICT), such as computers, mobile phones, communications satellite, patient monitors, etc., for health services and information. mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices in collecting community and clinical health data, delivery/sharing of healthcare information for practitioners, researchers and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, the direct provision of care as well as training and collaboration of health workers.
Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses information and communication technologies to facilitate understanding of health problems and challenges faced by people receiving medical treatment and social prescribing in more personalised and precise ways. The definitions of digital health and its remits overlap in many ways with those of health and medical informatics.
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased appetite. If left untreated, diabetes can cause many health complications. Acute complications can include diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state, or death. Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcers, damage to the nerves, damage to the eyes, and cognitive impairment.
Health information on the Internet refers to all health-related information communicated through or available on the Internet.
Infodemiology was defined by Gunther Eysenbach in the early 2000s as information epidemiology. It is an area of science research focused on scanning the internet for user-contributed health-related content, with the ultimate goal of improving public health. It is also defined as the science of mitigating public health problems resulting from an infodemic.
Digital therapeutics, a subset of digital health, are evidence-based therapeutic interventions driven by high quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease. Digital therapeutic companies should publish trial results inclusive of clinically meaningful outcomes in peer-reviewed journals. The treatment relies on behavioral and lifestyle changes usually spurred by a collection of digital impetuses. Because of the digital nature of the methodology, data can be collected and analyzed as both a progress report and a preventative measure. Treatments are being developed for the prevention and management of a wide variety of diseases and conditions, including type II diabetes, congestive heart failure, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, asthma, substance abuse, ADHD, hypertension, anxiety, depression, and several others. Digital therapeutics often employ strategies rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy.
Within the field of digital health, digital medicine is a category of pharmaceuticals which combines a prescription medication with an ingestible sensor component. Digital medicines are designed to communicate to mobile and/or web-based applications that a patient has taken a specific dose of medication at a certain time. Because of the ingestible sensor component and association with prescription pharmaceuticals, products in this category require regulatory oversight and clinical validation. Digital medicine(s) aim to improve pharmaceutical therapy by improving patient adherence.
The taxonomy of the burden of treatment is a visualization created for health care professionals to better comprehend the obstacles that interfere with a patient's health care plan. It was created as a result of a world wide, qualitative-based study that asked adults with chronic conditions to list the personal, environmental, and financial barriers that burden a patient. The purpose of this visualization is to help health care providers develop personalized management strategies that the patient can follow through a narrative paradigm. The goal is to target interventions, achieve an interpersonal doctor-patient relationship, and improve health outcomes.
References
- ↑ Hixon, Todd (9 December 2015). "Digital Therapeutics Have Huge Promise And They Are Real Today". Forbes . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- 1 2 Kvedar, Joseph (25 August 2016). "It's time to break free of the traditional paradigms of disease management". Med City News. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ Cymerys, Ed; Duffy, Sean (May 2015). "Implementing USPSTF Recommendations on Behavioral Counseling for Cardiovascular Disease". Health Watch. Society of Actuaries (78).
- ↑ Hird, Nick; Ghosh, Samik; Kitano, Hiroaki (June 2016). "Digital health revolution: perfect storm or perfect opportunity for pharmaceutical R&D?". Drug Discovery Today . 21 (6): 900–911. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2016.01.010. PMID 26821131 . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ Capobianco, Enrico (10 November 2015). "On Digital Therapeutics". Frontiers in Digital Humanities. 2 (6). doi: 10.3389/fdigh.2015.00006 .
- 1 2 Kvedar, Joseph C.; Fogel, Alexander L.; Elenko, Eric; Zohar, Daphne (March 2016). "Digital medicine's march on chronic disease" (PDF). Nature Biotechnology . 34 (3): 239–246. doi:10.1038/nbt.3495. PMID 26963544. S2CID 1515998 . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ Sepah, Cameron S.; Jiang, Luohua; Peters, Anne L. (2015). "Long-Term Outcomes of a Web-Based Diabetes Prevention Program: 2-Year Results of a Single-Arm Longitudinal Study". Journal of Medical Internet Research . 17 (4): e92. doi:10.2196/jmir.4052. PMC 4409647 . PMID 25863515 . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ Dahlberg, Leif E.; Grahn, Daniel; Dahlberg, Jakob E.; Thorstensson, Carina A. (2016). "A Web-Based Platform for Patients With Osteoarthritis of the Hip and Knee: A Pilot Study". Journal of Medical Internet Research . 5 (2): e115. doi:10.2196/resprot.5665. PMC 4912680 . PMID 27261271 . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ Lorenzetti, Laura (22 April 2016). "This Company Is Tackling Diabetes With 'Digital Therapeutics'". Fortune . Retrieved 19 October 2016.