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03/22/2023

Digital Health Tech: A Solution to Substance Use Disorders?

Article Excerpt: Healthcare is turning towards tech to develop effective therapies for substance use disorders
While there are several well-established pharmaceutical treatment options available for smoking cessation, and for opioid and alcohol use disorders, there is still a high demand for more effective therapies. According to GlobalData’s Medical Device Pipeline Analytics, there are 61 products in development for treating substance abuse disorders classed as healthcare IT.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3unbwpmh

Article Source: Medical Device Network

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
03/08/2023

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Mobile App Improves Health Behavior in Patients with Diabetes

Article Excerpt: With the use of cognitive behavioral therapy, a smartphone app helped patients with type 2 diabetes reduce HbA1c with less medication and insulation intensification vs. controls, a speaker reported. “Cardiometabolic diseases, and at its core, type 2 diabetes, are largely behavioral-acquired diseases and they’re related to unhelpful behaviors. But when we drive to what are the core, root causes of these behavioral choices, they have to do with thoughts and beliefs that lead to unhelpful behaviors and then unhelpful food choices, eating, exercise or behaviors and then type 2 diabetes,” Marc P. Bonaca, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC, executive director of CPC Clinical Research, professor of cardiology and vascular medicine and director of vascular research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said during a press conference. “How do we break that cycle?

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2s4ht3rj

Article Source: Healio

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ;
03/07/2023

Psychological Phenotypes Correlate with Response to Digital Therapy for Anxiety

Article Excerpt: A patient’s psychological phenotype could be an indication of whether the patient will respond to a digital therapy for anxiety, according to a new report. The study offers insights that could help clinicians offer personalized care to patients with psychological conditions, but it also could explain why some patients respond more strongly than others to the types of therapy often leveraged by prescription digital therapeutics. The findings were published in Scientific Reports. Corresponding author Veronique A. Taylor, Ph.D., M.Sc., of the Brown University School of Public Health, and colleagues, said while personalized medicine has become an important component of other types of healthcare, personalized medicine in mental health has lagged due in part to a lack of research.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2p8tnr2j

Article Source: Managed Healthcare Executive

Posted in: Methodologies & Analytics, Uncategorized // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
03/06/2023

Opioid Prescription Decision Tool May Be Feasible Option to Curb Overprescribing

Article Excerpt: A new report shows that an app designed to help clinicians make better opioid-prescribing decisions following surgery can be a useful tool, although not all clinicians said they would continue using it. The study, published in BMJ Open, highlights one potential strategy to help curb the overprescription of opioids, which is believed to be a major factor in the current epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States. The study investigators said persistent postsurgical opioid use is a common problem that occurs in about 6% of opioid-naive patients who are given the drugs. In about 15% of cases, patients are discharged with opioid prescriptions that are inconsistent with their opioid usage while in the hospital.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yhxbwnc2

Article Source: AJMC

Posted in: Emerging Technologies, Uncategorized // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
02/10/2023

CBT Smartphone App Aims to Address Depression in Teens

Article Excerpt: Researchers recently created a brand new CBT smartphone app that will provide young people with multiple ways to address and handle their mental health problems. A study group will now be assembled to assess the effectiveness of the smartphone application in relation to its ability to combat depression. Adolescents are struggling with depression at higher rates today than ever before. Researchers believe that the stress of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting peer isolation and disruption to school life is to blame. Other factors cited include an ever-growing presence on social media and pressure to conform to impossible celebrity standards. Thus, any way in which technology can help depressed teens minimize symptoms is much-needed. Through the use of interactive and self-guided therapy, the ClearlyMe app will use the power of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, on teenagers from all over the country. The technology contains 37 “short lessons” that will touch upon the basics of CBT and the power it has to change thinking and alter core beliefs in those who use it.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/326u5s8v

Article Source: Legal Reader

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
01/09/2023

New mHealth Intervention Aims to Curb Smoking Among Black HIV Patients

Article Excerpt: Following a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Lorra Garey, a researcher from the University of Houston RESTORE Lab, plans to lead a research project to assess the impact of an mHealth application to mitigate smoking among Black people with HIV. HIV, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, affects a large portion of the worldwide population. According to the World Health Organization, it has led to 40 million deaths globally. In addition, the US Department of Veterans Affairs noted that about 20 percent of US citizens with HIV are not aware that they have it, according to the press release.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/456cr8fh

Article Source: mHealthIntelligence

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
01/03/2023

Effect of Mobile Phone App–Based Interventions on Quality of Life and Psychological Symptoms Among Adult Cancer Survivors: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Qin M, Chen B, Sun S, Liu X.Effect of Mobile Phone App–Based Interventions on Quality of Life and Psychological Symptoms Among Adult Cancer Survivors: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Med Internet Res 2022;24(12):e39799 DOI: 10.2196/39799

A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of mobile phone app interventions on quality of life (QOL) and psychological outcomes in adult cancer patients. Researchers identified randomized controlled trial studies evaluating apps that targeted adults with cancer and QOL or psychological symptoms. In total, 30 randomized controlled trials with a total of 5,353 patients were included in the meta-analysis. App interventions included health education, physician-patient communication, or data management regarding patient self-monitoring behaviors. On average, interventions were conducted over 2.8 months. Compared with standard care, app interventions significantly improved QOL (Standardized Mean Difference (SMD)=0.39, p<.001) and self-efficacy (SMD=0.15, p=.03) and reduced anxiety (SMD=0.64, p<.001), depression (SMD=-0.33, p=.009), and distress (SMD=-0.34, p=.01) symptoms. Subgroup analyses were also conducted for intervention duration, type of cancer, theoretical approach, treatment category, and intervention delivery (interactive 2-way communication format versus 1-way communication format). Short-term (<3 months) interventions were found to have higher effectiveness compared to longer term interventions for QOL, anxiety and depression. However, given that only 9 studies were longer than 3 months, there is a need for further research on the long-term effects of these app interventions. Apps that included physician-patient communication and that were based on cognitive behavioral therapy were most effective for improving QOL and psychological outcomes. Overall, results provide evidence for the effectiveness of mobile phone app interventions on QOL and psychological outcomes, however caution is needed in the over-interpretation of findings due to high heterogeneity across the studies.

Posted in: Cutting Edge Literature // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
12/15/2022

Telehealth’s Popularity Reaches Beyond Virtual Doctor Visits

Article Excerpt: Patients have made their choice clear: Telehealth is now a key component of medical care. COVID changed nearly every aspect of daily life, including how consumers interact with medical providers. Pre-pandemic visits to the doctor were, for the most part, strictly in person. Then lockdowns occurred, forcing medical professionals to rethink avenues of care and propelling the broad use of telehealth. Restrictions may have lifted, but consumers are reluctant to quit the convenience of digital health – but aren’t entirely forgoing trips to physical offices. As recently as July 2022, 46% of U.S. patients engaged with healthcare using a mix of online and in-person visits.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y2bksd9d

Article Source: PYMTS

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
12/01/2022

UAMS Researchers Design App to Prevent Opioid Use Disorder Relapse

Article Excerpt: A trio of researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have designed a smart phone application to decrease opioid cravings and optimize medication-assisted treatment among individuals with opioid use disorder. A prototype of the app, known as OptiMAT (Optimizing Medication Assisted Treatment), was one of five winning entries in the 2022 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) “Product Prototypes to Combat Drug Craving” Challenge, a national contest of product prototypes designed to reduce drug cravings and prevent drug misuse, earning Andrew James, Ph.D., Ronald G. Thompson, Ph.D., and Mary Bollinger, Ph.D., an honorable mention and a $5,000 cash prize.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yc7jrp5h

Article Source: UAMS News

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;