July 5, 2005
Mobile phone helps patients with cystic fibrosis
Patients who live with the degenerative lung condition cystic fibrosis are being helped by a specially adapted mobile phone to monitor their condition without visiting clinics, reports Digital Bulletin.
The phones have been provided to a number of patients by O2, the British mobile phone operator. The Xda II gathers and records lung function and patients symptoms, and sends the data in real time to clinicians.
The system is being trialled by 25 patients in England. Evidence suggests that the system helps patients contribute directly to more effective management of their illness. The severity of symptoms, including events like pulmonary exacerbations as well as the risk of hospitalisation, is expected to be reduced.
Doctors are also becoming adept at interpreting the information in a way that allows them, in some cases, to predict deterioration in the patient's condition and to take proactive measures to reduce the severity of a clinical event.
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