Wireless World: Text messaging for meds

April 30th, 2006

Physicians now have a technological solution to an all too common scenario -- a cardiac patient forgets to take his heart medication and winds up in the emergency room.

Doctors are sending text-message reminders to patients, via mobile phones and personal digital assistants, telling them it's time to take their prescribed angiotensin converting enzyme or ACE inhibitor, like Prinivil, or other medications.

"One of our major thrusts is going to be moving healthcare related applications to technologies that are more familiar to the patients," said Dr. Joseph Kvedar, vice chairman of dermatology at the Harvard Medical School, and a director of Partners Telemedicine.

"This is going to be a tool to monitor congestive heart failure," Kvedar said. "Weight is an indicator of health here. These patients tend to collect fluid and get short of breath, and wind up in the emergency room. But if you track their weight, can determine if they are getting sick, you can keep people out of the institution and take care of them in a higher-quality way."

Ultimately, the information gathered remotely at a patient's home and transmitted wirelessly may be even more accurate than what has been accumulated, historically, in the doctor's office, due to the anxiety a patient may feel when visiting the physician for a chronic illness.

"Text messaging is not the same as sitting across from the person," Kvedar said. "But not every interaction with your provider needs to be highly emotional. The blood pressure check is an example. We've put up with this over the years, but it probably is highly inaccurate in the doctors office and inconvenient for you."