Public Health Case study: Jeffery is an 18-year old high school senior, living i

Question

Public Health

Case study:

Jeffery is an 18-year old high school senior, living in a rural area and is newly diagnosed with Type I diabetes following an acute hyperglycemic episode which required hospitalization. After four days he is medically stable and ready for discharge. He is able to measure his blood glucose and can safely administer the appropriate dose of insulin. The nurse notes that Jeffery sometimes has trouble calibrating the insulin dose to the blood glucose reading. She also notes that his father is short and impatient with Jeffery, expressing many concerns that Jeffery “may not be able to handle such a complex medical problem on his own”.

A classmate tells Jeffery – “it’s too bad you have diabetes, all guys with diabetes become weak sooner or later”. Later that night, Jeffery goes on the Internet and tries to find out if his friend’s dire warning is true.

Two weeks later Jeffery’s physician notes a slight but persistent rise in his blood glucose readings. He sends Jeffery a message on the Palm to schedule an appointment and review the medication administration strategy. Later realizing that Jeffery regularly tests his blood but doesn’t always record the insulin dosing, the physician and nurse set up a plan for Jeffery to message them at each dose administration point. They use this messaging to provide reassurance, encouragement and to insure that the medication is actually being taken.

After Jeffrey misses two scheduled visits, the Diabetes Educator calls see what is the matter. Jeffery explains that it is a three hour drive from his home to the diabetes center and that his father had trouble taking time off from work to drive Jeffery. The Diabetes Educator notes that Jeffery lives in a rural area and is eligible to receive educational services via teleheath. She signs Jeffery up to receive a Home Telehealth Unit and schedules delivery. After the unit arrives, Jeffery rarely misses a video education session. At one visit, Jeffery complains that is father is always “on his case” about his injections. She schedules the next video visit during an evening when Jeffery’s father can attend. She also schedules Jeffery to have a video visit with the dietitian.

Patients like Jeffery need quick, private access to accurate information that can calm fears and ensure direct access to currently accepted treatment for their illness. How can computer technology in the health fields help in providing such information? Give and explain 2 examples of available programs or resources?

I do not want handwriting must be computer

Explanation / Answer

Diabetes mellitus is a syndrome of impaired carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism directly related to the production or efficiency to utilize the Insulin. Type I DM is also called Insulin dependent DM or Juvenile onset caused by lack of insulin due to destruction of beta cells that produces insulin. Treatment includes administration of exogenous insulin. Management of this disease is important because sometimes patients need to take more than one dose of insulin injection a day. Insulin helps the tissues to utilize the blood glucose .So medication should be administered timely in the prescribed dose. So over periods of time enthusiasm slowly comes down and chances those patients misses the dose or slowly end up in in chaos because it is an incurable metabolic disorder. Jeffery is one of those kids. Close monitoring and timely support is needed for Jeffery. Even though the treatment appears to be simple overdose and underdoes or missing a dose is equally bad in this case.

An example for diabetes management done in US is published as” An Integrated Monitoring System for Managing Diabetes Patients Using Mobile Computing Technology”

In this paper they have modified SMARTDIAB which is proposed by S.G. Mougiakakou et al. in 2010.. SMARTDIAB was consisting of two units: patient unit and patient management unit and in the above said example they have improved and edited it as patient unit, endocrinologist unit, and general physician unit and obtained their results.

Other 2 examples for advanced technology in health care management is

mHealth. Mobile health is a newer concept where patient also can monitor their health as doctors do. Smartphones and tablets loaded with mHealth tools are the gadget which helps to interconnect physicians and patients even at home. Both Doctor and patient can check healthcare processes on-the-go. mHealth is a wireless connectivity that allows patients to become active players in their treatment by connecting communication with biometrics

3. Telemedicine/telehealth. Tele medicine is a cost effective technology useful even in rural setting to monitor treatment. In urban setting it helps employees to save time taken for clinic visit and also eliminates the need of leave from work. It is a growing field with tremendous scope of expansion in near future.

Tele medicine clinic can lower the cost of healthcare systems by consulting through video chats. Better care can be done more effectively. It also helps to interconnect doctors and experts over world to discuss serious medical conditions and monitor surgery or complicated procedures with taking the pain of physically present in the scene.

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