Health Literacy | Blog

More and more patients are using smartphone-based tools to manage their health.  The smartphone is an excellent tool for tracking and managing personal health and sharing that information with their doctor.  With an estimated 30 percent of 7.4 billion mobile phone subscribers in 2015 likely to use a phone-based wellness application (BCG/Telenor Mobile Health Report), billions of people are going to be storing personal health information on their phone.  It is essential that individuals follow basic mobile security best practices in order for this technology to live up to its full potential in a safe and secure manner.

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Five modifiable behaviors—diet, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and poor medication adherence—are responsible for much of the illness, suffering, and early death related to chronic diseases.

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The statistics for hypertension are stunning. 30% of US adults have hypertension (high blood pressure). Another 30% of Americans are pre-hypertensive.Less than half of those people with hypertension have their condition under control.  A fifth don't know they have it. The annual price tag for direct medical expenses related to high blood pressure is $131 billion. This is driven in part by the 55 million doctor visits that are prompted by high blood pressure. High blood pressure is present in most first heart attacks (69%), first strokes (77%), and in people with congestive heart failure (74%). High blood pressure was listed as a primary or contributing cause of death for about 348,000 Americans in 2008. Here's how mHealth can help.

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More than 20 million people living in the United States have kidney disease. It's the 8th leading cause of death. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is any condition that causes reduced kidney function over a period of time. End-stage kidney disease (ESRD) is the final stage of chronic kidney disease. It basically means that your kidneys don't work any more. The kidneys may slowly stop working over 10 to 20 years before end-stage disease becomes official. The most common causes of ESRD in the U.S. are diabetes and high blood pressure. ESRD is quite serious and can't be fixed. In order to live with ESRD, you need ongoing dialysis or a kidney transplant. The good news is that kidney disease can be prevented in many cases. Here's how mHealth can help.

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Let’s face it: despite all kinds of incentives, financial and otherwise, statistics overwhelming indicate that the problem of readmissions isn’t improving. What other industries have a 20% return rate? While there are certainly issues that will and should land people back in the hospital, there are also many patients who shouldn’t go back.
 

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