Our next entry in Healthcare Gadget Friday is the iMPak Health Journals from Meridian Health and NoMoreClipboard. You may remember that I called the iMPak Health Journals the most creative technology I found at HIMSS 12. As such I wanted to write more about how they worked.
Here’s a picture I took of the iMPak Health Journal:
It certainly looks pretty simple and it is. That’s done by design. You basically use the iMPak health journal by pressing down on the blue and red circles. Pressing these “buttons” kind of reminds me of the musical greeting cards you get. When you’d press it down the music would start playing. This works very similar. Although, you push the red button to start and then each of the blue buttons represent a response to a healthcare question. It’s as simple as that. You hold down the buttons and it records your answers.
Then, the next time you go for an appointment or through an NFC (near field communication) connection to your cell phone (almost all new cell phones will have this technology) the data is uploaded electronically to the NoMoreClipboard website. From there all of the data can be processed and seen by yourself and your doctor.
I’d hoped to have a video where you could see the use of the iMPak journal, but I wasn’t able to get one that did a nice demo. What I found so creative was how simple it was to collect data from a patient. They didn’t need to download an app. They didn’t need to buy an expensive device that they’re only going to use for a limited time.
Turns out that there are a lot of potential uses for these journals. Some areas that might find them useful are: Insurance Companies, Hospitals / Health Systems, Pharmacy Benefit Management, Pharmaceutical Companies, Employer Benefits Management, and Retail Pharmacies. Here’s a video which shows how it can be used:
One challenge that still exists with this device is getting patients to remember to use the device. A built in alarm that would go off to remind them to answer the questions could help to solve that problem. Although, the journal is so portable, I’d hate to have the alarm go off as you carry it around in your purse or something.
I’ll also be interested to see how many patients lose their iMPak journal or just forget to bring it to the office for their appointment. This isn’t an issue if they’ve been uploading their data using their own cell phone, but would be an issue in those cases where they’re uploading the data in the office.
The biggest competitor to this product is the various mobile health apps that are cropping up. One day I can see the mobile health apps really taking over this space. However, there are still many patients who don’t carry a smart phone or that can’t/won’t go to the hassle of downloading an app to track this stuff. In those cases, I find the iMPak Health Journal a really creative solution to getting the data to be able to provide better patient care.
Full Disclosure: NoMoreClipboard is an advertiser on this site.