Working virtually—from home—has become a reality for an estimated one-third of workers, but what about health care? There are many forms of technology that can protect and improve our health…like apps and online sites designed to measure health information and motivate us to increase healthy activities and habits. And to avoid spread of the coronavirus, many doctors have been seeing patients virtually…by phone or video. Turns out it’s a convenient and efficient way to care for patients that may be the way of the future, even after we have a vaccine.
Virtual consultations
I first started thinking about how technology could help us be healthier when I was contacted by a Canadian health care company, Maple, who wanted to advertise on my blog. You may have noticed that I don’t advertise, mainly because I don’t want anything I say to be influenced or censored or even to appear to be biased in any way. But I found the concept of being able to contact a doctor through an app to be interesting. With this company, you can speak to a doctor within 24 hours, specialists as well as general practitioners are available, and the cost is $49 to $99 per consultation, depending on the time of day and day of the week. They also coordinate virtual staffing of a small hospital that lost its only doctor. I understand there are similar companies in other countries as well. Of course, in Canada, we have universal medical coverage, making this a less attractive option for the general public.
But then I realized my province offers virtual consultations with all our doctors, a new service that began being covered with the outbreak of COVID-19. And so do all other provinces and territories in Canada, with most advising doctors to provide telemedicine or virtual care when possible. Seems not that long ago, doctors were refusing to handle prescription renewals by phone because there was no compensation for the time required to complete this (often time consuming) task. Patients love the convenience and are happy to avoid the waiting room, especially with the current increased risk of disease. Doctors comment that they can see more patients in less time. I guess it takes an emergency to advance the system quickly.
But we’ve had an “811” line for several years, staffed by nurses, to give advice for health problems that aren’t a “911” emergency. It’s free for all, covered by Medicare, and has been working well to reduce the load on emergency departments, where people often end up when they aren’t sure what is wrong. So, I guess we’ve had virtual care for a while but, with the current health crisis, it’s been greatly expanded.
Technology at home
The internet is a wealth of information, although some sources are better than others. It’s amazing what we can do on our phones and laptops now to improve or monitor our health. I have vetted the following sites/apps as best I can, but please check with your doctor before acting on any information contained in these online/virtual sources. To evaluate any online information source, look at who developed or posted it, when it was last updated, and whether they are selling you something… and ask your doctor, nurse practitioner or pharmacist to verify it is an accurate source of information.
So, the following is a list of apps and online information sites that I’ve found, several of which I use myself and others that look interesting. I hope you will find some of these useful:
Fitness trackers – There are many of these available, from simple pedometers to track your steps and distance walked or biked each day. It’s fun and motivating to see how far you’ve walked at the end of the day, week or month and to compare how you’re doing over time. I especially like to use one of these when on vacation to see how far we walked each day.
Exercise apps and websites – If you want to exercise at home, there are lots of sources of online sessions you can access for free with different levels of intensity or experience. Some will even send you reminders to exercise. Many require little or no equipment and often only limited space is needed.
Nutrition apps – While it’s time consuming and unnecessary for most of us to track everything we eat every day, it might be something you want to do for a while if on a special diet. Many have nutrition information built in to help track calories, carbohydrates, salt or specific nutrients in foods (for example, calcium might be of interest to someone with bone loss). Some are geared to specific diets, like Keto or Vegetarian. I noticed one (Veganized) that even tracks nutrients to ensure a balanced diet, as well as enabling meal planning and shopping lists. Others simply give a breakdown of nutrients in a measured amount of food for information purposes, like carbohydrates for those on a keto diet, without tracking everything you eat.
Mental health – Meditation guides, mood journals, sleep aids are designed to help you learn to meditate or relax to enable falling sleep. Two popular ones are Calm and Headspace, if you are interested in learning to meditate. Sleepwell.NS’s website: www.mysleepwell.ca is a site I often recommend to those who have problems sleeping and want to avoid medication.
Brain training – Like every part of the body, exercising the brain helps to keep it functioning well. While I use blogging to keep my brain active, some like to play brain games to stay sharp and have a little fun. Some people even find these relaxing and de-stressing after a busy day. From word games (Scrabble online, Wordscapes), logic puzzles (Sudoku, logic puzzles), and memory games to more specific exercises for those with brain injury, there are plenty to choose from, many for free. I like to play solitaire to pass the time and challenge my brain a little—once, as I was getting of a flight, a man who had been sitting a couple of rows back asked me if I won my game! My mom did the newspaper puzzles every day for years, and most of these (Cryptoquotes, crosswords) are available online now, with new ones each day. Just search “brain games” in Google Play or the App Store to find something you’d enjoy.
Disease monitoring — There are many apps for diseases like diabetes that require constant monitoring. Most blood glucose meters have an app from their manufacturer that stores the readings and helps interpret this information, and some will even automatically detect the results of tests you do. Your doctor can provide the monitoring information you need to set it up, for example, high and low blood sugar level limits for a diabetes program. He’ll also likely be interested in the reports it produces!
COVID-19 — There are even apps to track the coronavirus and keep us informed about our level of risk. The Canada COVID-19 app provides alerts for your area of Canada, a symptom tracker, daily updated stats, a self-check assessment, what to do if you get sick and more. And there are others, some designed to simply provide information or to track cases. Be sure to check on the privacy disclosure of how any data they collect is being used.
-- If you are a health care worker, the Open WHO app from the World Health Organization provides courses to educate workers, decision makers and the public on various health emergencies and procedures, including COVID-19. Note: Choose your preferred language, as courses and information are provided in several languages.
-- Some countries are using tracking apps to enable contact tracing—a potentially life-saving type of app that all countries may need to consider in anticipation of a second wave of infection.
Communication — And, of course, who hasn’t heard of Zoom? Our family has long been Skype users…there’s something special about being about to see as well as talk to someone. They say that communication is 70% non-verbal, so that’s probably why. I can tell you that my Mom always preferred Skype to a telephone call, even when she was in her 80s and 90s! Making video calls is even easier now with many choices of programs. Besides Skype and Zoom, there are Whereby.com, WhatsApp, Messenger and, I’m sure, others that allow you to communicate with messages, voice and video. Nothing like being able to talk face-to-face with someone you love when you’re isolated and can’t visit!
Our smart phones really are “smart” enough to help us stay healthy if we use them fully. Have you been using any helpful apps I haven’t mentioned in the past couple of months? Please let me know so I can add them to the list!
Reference:
Telemedicine and virtual care guidelines—Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
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