Mobile Technology to Help Treat Cf Patients

Doctors in Bristol Royal Infirmary are pioneering a new method of treatment that could help make lives easier for patients with cystic fibrosis, reports the scotsman.com.

Mobile phone technology is being used in a pilot project to enable doctors to make early diagnosis of chest infection caused by CF, offering faster treatment and greatly reducing the need patients having to come in for lengthy, more serious treatment.

The technology works with patients monitoring their condition daily by recording their symptoms and quality of breathing using a palm computer and a lung function machine.

The results are automatically beamed in “real time” across a mobile phone network to a receiving station in the respiratory department at the BRI.

Respiratory doctors can then interpret this data and contact the patient if they need treatment. Using this early diagnosis, patients can be given simple oral antibiotics if their condition worsens, rather than being admitted to hospital and having more invasive treatments, therefore improving their condition over time.

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emily | 5:09 PM | Health Issues and SMS Alerts |
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