Hyderabad: A selfie medicine app has got researchers and healthcare specialists excited as it will help them check and follow up on patients who need to take medicines regularly, for instance, for tuberculosis, blood borne infections, Hepatitis C and also addiction. Patients often don’t complete the full course prescribed, and this can cause severe complications later as in the case of tuberculosis. The app will allow the heathcare worker to track and verify more easily whether the patient has been taking the medicine as prescribed.
“This app will definitely help us deal with the problem of tuberculosis,” says Dr K.K. Aggarwal, member of the Indian Medical Association. “At present healthcare workers follow up with the patients on a daily basis. They are the ones who motivate and also help patients deal with severe side-effects. This app looks promising to check and verify on these programmes.”
This selfie app will address the huge problem of drugs not being taken for chronic conditions due to the cost, side-effects, and also forgetfulness of the patient. Researchers who have tested this app state that it helps the healthcare sector to engage the patients for long by ensuring follow-up, self-motivating them and also working with them closely on the side-effects. The flipside is that there will be questions raised on privacy and data security. Hence experts state that it must be used only for specific chronic diseases where regular follow-up is required.
How does the selfie medicine app work?
Open the app, show the pills put them in your mouth and swallow. Then show the empty mouth to the camera to ensure that the dose is completed. Upload the video and send it to the clinic. The clinic will store the data and also follow-up with the patient the days they have not uploaded the video. The follow-up will be immediate. In case of side-effects, the advice of doctors and further treatment can be immediately sought.
