A user-centered, learning asthma smartphone application for patients and providers.

PROBLEM: Smartphone applications are an increasingly useful part of patients' self-management of chronic health conditions. Asthma is a common chronic health condition for which good self-management by patients is very helpful in maintaining stability. User-centered design and intelligent systems that learn are steps forward in building applications that are more effective in providing quality care that is scalable and tailored to each patient. METHODS: A literature and application store search to review historic and current asthma smart phone applications. User-centered design is a methodology that involves all stakeholders of a proposed system from the beginning of the design phase to the end of installation. One aspect of this user-centered approach involved conducting focus groups with patients and health care providers to determine what features they desire for use in applications and create a model to build smart infrastructure for a learning health care system. A simple prototype for an asthma smartphone application is designed and built with basic functionality. OUTCOMES: Only one publication in the literature review of asthma smartphone applications describes both user-centered design and intelligent learning systems. The authors have presented a set of user-desired attributes for a smart health care application and a possible data flow diagram of information for a learning system. A prototype simple user-centered designed asthma smartphone application that better assists patients in their care illustrates the value of the proposed architecture. DISCUSSION: Our user-centered approach helped design and implement a learning prototype smart phone application to help patients better manage their asthma and provide information to clinical care providers. While popular in other industries, user-centered design has had slow adoption in the health care area. However, the popularity of this approach is increasing and will hopefully result in mobile application that better meets the needs of both patients and their care providers.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice Patterns of Health Professionals Toward Medical and Non-medical Stimulant Use by Young Adults.

BACKGROUND: The role of family physicians (FPs) and college health professionals (CHPs) in stimulant treatment and nonmedical use of stimulants is not clear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current practices, concerns, needs, beliefs, barriers, and facilitators to appropriate pharmacological treatment of teens and young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and prevention of nonmedical use and diversion. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey developed by the project team and experts in the field, delivered to national sample of FPs and CHPs. RESULTS: A total of 794 completed surveys were analyzed. The average age of respondents was 51.6 ± 10.3 years; 50.6% of the respondents were female. The majority of CHPs (80.6%) reported they spend 75% to 100% of their time with patients age 17 to 24 years and 74.0% of FPs reported they spend less than 25% of their time with this age group. The majority (91.7%) of the respondents indicated that untreated ADHD affects quality of life, and 76.4% indicated untreated ADHD is often associated with risky behaviors. More CHPs than FPs always refer out for ADHD diagnosis (70.7% vs 52.1%; P < .001). Most respondents (81.2%) were concerned with ADHD medication diversion, and 84.2% believed that diversion or abuse is a problem overall. Respondents indicated they are unprepared to provide patient education on decisions about pharmacotherapy or behavioral therapy choices for adult ADHD. CONCLUSION: There is an opportunity to enhance safety and effectiveness of ADHD management in young adults. Additional resources and interventions are needed to improve medication management, reduce misuse, and ensure safe and appropriate use of stimulants.

Upper gastrointestinal issues in athletes.

Gastrointestinal (GI) complaints are common among athletes with rates in the range of 30% to 70%. Both the intensity of sport and the type of sporting activity have been shown to be contributing factors in the development of GI symptoms. Three important factors have been postulated as contributing to the pathophysiology of GI complaints in athletes: mechanical forces, altered GI blood flow, and neuroendocrine changes. As a result of those factors, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), nausea, vomiting, gastritis, peptic ulcers, GI bleeding, or exercise-related transient abdominal pain (ETAP) may develop. GERD may be treated with changes in eating habits, lifestyle modifications, and training modifications. Nausea and vomiting may respond to simple training modifications, including no solid food 3 hours prior to an athletic event. Mechanical trauma, decreased splanchnic blood flow during exercise, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) contribute to gastritis, GI bleeding, and ulcer formation in athletes. Acid suppression with proton-pump inhibitors may be useful in athletes with persistence of any of the above symptoms. ETAP is a common, poorly-understood, self-limited acute abdominal pain which is difficult to treat. ETAP incidence increases in athletes beginning a new exercise program or increasing the intensity of their current exercise program. ETAP may respond to changes in breathing patterns or may resolve simply with continued training. Evaluation of the athlete with upper GI symptoms requires a thorough history, a detailed training log, a focused physical examination aimed at ruling out potentially serious causes of symptoms, and follow-up laboratory testing based on concerning physical examination findings.

SMART--an integrated wireless system for monitoring unattended patients.

Monitoring vital signs and locations of certain classes of ambulatory patients can be useful in overcrowded emergency departments and at disaster scenes, both on-site and during transportation. To be useful, such monitoring needs to be portable and low cost, and have minimal adverse impact on emergency personnel, e.g., by not raising an excessive number of alarms. The SMART (Scalable Medical Alert Response Technology) system integrates wireless patient monitoring (ECG, SpO(2)), geo-positioning, signal processing, targeted alerting, and a wireless interface for caregivers. A prototype implementation of SMART was piloted in the waiting area of an emergency department and evaluated with 145 post-triage patients. System deployment aspects were also evaluated during a small-scale disaster-drill exercise.

Lemierre syndrome: a case report.

Lemierre syndrome is a condition that can have high morbidity and mortality, but if it is diagnosed early in a patient's workup, that is, in the ED, the morbidity and mortality can be significantly decreased. First described by Dr Andre Lemierre in 1936, Lemierre syndrome is a clinical condition, which presents as septic emboli in the internal jugular vein after an untreated pharyngitis. This condition can have significant morbidity and mortality; therefore, although it is not common in today's era of antimicrobials, it should still be considered and thought of to prevent the significant consequences that may occur from it. In this article, we will present a child who was admitted for fever, neck pain, lymphadenopathy, and lung abscesses which was diagnosed as Lemierre syndrome. This syndrome will be discussed so as to heighten clinical awareness of it.