Apple Watch App Takes On Cancer
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
Chemotherapy patients in London are being sent home with Apple Watches — all in the name of one of the newest advancements in mHealth.
King’s College Hospital is piloting a new initiative within its cancer program according to Wareable. It allows patients to receive medication reminders through their Apple Watch and a chemotherapy app built by Medopad. Additionally, users can send symptoms and temperature readings to doctors quickly and easily. Activity levels are also available for access by medical staff after they’ve been captured by the watch’s accelerometer.
About The App
Medopad is a U.K. healthcare company that isn’t new to the health app development world — they’ve been building apps for physicians since the iPad launched. The Apple Watch simply provides them with greater opportunity to change patient lives for the better and more deeply involve them in treatment. Medopad CEO, Rich Khatib told Wareable, “The doctors who helped us to develop the app at King’s are so excited. The tricky thing is how to integrate HealthKit information into the systems that doctors and hospitals are using but Medopad takes care of this.”
Unfortunately, supply limitations on the Apple Watch have left Medopad with only a couple of units the use in the King’s College trial. The company is waiting anxiously to buy one or two hundred devices, for which patients will likely be expected to pay (Medopad CTO, Dan Vàhdat notes that the $349 price tag is not expensive in the context of cancer treatment costs.) Right now, Medopad is paying for the watches.
The Data
While doctors will be able to access and make use of the data, Medopad is quick to point out that they are not storing data themselves, comparing themselves to Uber in the sense that Uber doesn’t own cars.
The data stands to save the NHS a notable amount of money considering that about 10 percent of their budget goes to cancer treatment.
Looking Forward
Medopad is planning on rolling the program out to other hospitals around London, with Khatib wanting to see all hospitals in the city on the program and eventually planning to branch out into other countries, including China.
“I want to see everyone going through chemotherapy treatment using the Medopad app. Cancer affects one in every two people in the UK and we both know people who have suffered from it … This is just the beginning. We have plans for apps for different diseases, we are already working with ResearchKit. We also want to use the sensors on the Watch so for the care of elderly people, we're looking to use the accelerometer for fall detection.”
Also see these articles on BSMinfo.com: Why The Sensor Market In Healthcare Is Expected To Grow and FDA Approves First Diabetes-Related App.