Are you a super-patient?

You are battling a disease that requires a superhuman amount of time and effort.

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On top of feeling physically, emotionally, and financially drained because of chronic health problems, you also have to fight stress. Stress over things that most people don't have to think about. Stress about your little every day things like how to get yourself to your next doctor's appointment, whether you took your medications correctly this morning, or whether or not the pharmacy will have your prescription ready on time (and, even if it is ready on time, are you getting the best price for your drugs?). 

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Top that off with the kind of stress that other people get to complain about- the "getting the kids to school on time every morning" spiel, or the "in-laws will be in town this weekend" scenario, and you've got yourself a fight that looks like it can't be won.

Unfortunately for you, stress takes an even larger toll on your mind and body than you may know. Stress can raise your blood pressure, slow your digestion, and depress your immune system. Over the long term it can even increase your risk of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, not to mention the setbacks it may bring to your current health issues.

As if you weren't battling enough already. 

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That is where we would like to help. Enter Jack Imaging, your health care sidekick. Jack Imaging offers you, the patient, and you, the person, a sense of control over your health care. 

Through your free, cloud-based patient profile, we help you store your radiologic record somewhere safe and accessible. Your images can be viewed from any doctor's office, or even from your computer so that you can cut down your number of appointments and consults,  or even get a second opinion on your latest scan without leaving home. If a little peace of mind  can help lower your stress load, we want to be the ones to help you achieve it. Check out our tutorial here, or sign up here if you are ready to bring us on as your health care sidekick.

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If we could be your side kick, this is what we would want to look like.

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What does it really feel like to be a superhuman patient? Let us know in the comments below or, if you'd rather stay private, shoot us an e-mail! 

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Nephosity teams up with the CSC Benjamin Center in Tech Tools for Care Management

Earlier this month, Nephosity was kindly invited to teach a course on tech tools for care management - introducing cancer patients at the CSC Benjamin Center in Los Angeles to helpful (and free!) web or mobile based tools to help manage care.

The Benjamin Center is an extremely warm and welcoming home to all individuals touched by cancer - offering free-of-charge services including educational classes, support groups, fun activities and more. Whether you are a patient, a caretaker or just supporting a loved one going through cancer, you will be welcomed with open arms at the CSC. It is truly a wonderful place.

CSC Benjamin Center located in West LA, CA

Our course on patient tech tools received an overwhelmingly positive response from the group, and it was an amazing experience to hear patient and caretaker stories regarding their frustrations with currently available "technologies". We were so grateful by the positive response from the group that we were inspired to share our materials with others who might find our content useful. 

All technology tools we've curated are free (or low-priced) web and mobile applications aimed at helping you - or your caretaker, or loved one - better manage your health as you battle illness.

The list includes tools to help you:
- locate lower cost prescription drugs at nearby pharmacies
- upload and share your medical images 
- manage your health records
- track your health bills
- and more

Find the full list, here, and let us know your experience with any of these in the comments below, as well as any additional apps we may be missing! We look forward to hearing your responses.

Finally, if you are in the Los Angeles area, look forward to future workshop panels on how to use health technology to better manage your and your loved ones' health. 

Thank you!

Patient Tools for Care Management

Empower Yourself,

Engage With Your Health

The following tools were curated and shared with patients at the Benjamin Center. Read more about our session on tech tools for patient care, here!

Patient Care Management Technologies

Adhere Tech's smart pill bottles attempt to increase medication adherence by wirelessly sending medication amount and reminding patients to take their prescribed dosage via phone call or text

Adhere Tech – smart pill bottle

Adhere Tech bottles measure the exact amount of pills or liquid in the bottle in real-time, and wirelessly sends this HIPAA-compliant data into the cloud, and remind patients to take their medication via automated phone call or text message.  Adhere Tech’s smart pill bottle will be available in 2014. 

Link: http://www.adheretech.com/

Mango Health – prescription drugs and supplements management

Mango Health is an app that allows patients to manage their medications and supplements in an incentivized, gamified environment.  Patients can schedule set alerts as reminders for pill consumption and learn about dangerous drug interactions. 

Link:  http://www.mangohealth.com/

Jack Imaging - store, view and share your medical images 

Jack Imaging (beta) enables patients to store, view and share medical images in any WiFi-enabled setting. Upload images directly from your imaging CDs without any software installation required and share with providers, friends or family with the click of a button. 

Link:  http://jackimaging.com/ 

Simplee – medical bills management

Simplee is an alternative to Cake Health.  Just like with Mint and your financial accounts, you give Simplee access to your medical insurance accounts. It then brings in all of your medical, dental, and pharmacy bills and presents them in an easy-to-understand dashboard. Simplee tells your total medical costs, how much you’ve paid out-of-pocket, your deductible, and how many doctor’s visits you and your family have had.

Link: https://simplee.com/

Healthy Out – nutritional guidance for dining out

Healthy Out finds you dishes at local restaurants that match your diet and nutrition preferences.

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/restaurant-nutrition-healthy/id566409966

Community Building Technologies

Cure Together connects patients with treatment ratings across ~637 health conditions

Cure Together – communities around conditions

Imagine patients around the world coming together to anonymously share qualitative information on over 600 medical conditions and their treatments. Patients rate symptoms and compare treatment outcomes. 

Link: http://curetogether.com

Smart Patients – online community for cancer patients

Smart Patients is an online community where cancer patients and caregivers learn from each other about treatments, clinical trials, the latest science, and how it all fits into the context of their experience.




Link:  https://www.smartpatients.com/

CrowdMed – wisdom of crowds for solving medical problems

CrowdMed is revolutionizing healthcare by harnessing 'the wisdom of crowds' to help solve even the world's most difficult medical cases quickly and accurately online.  Crowd Med believes in the power of groups to gather information, make smart decisions, and ultimately help save lives.

Link: https://www.crowdmed.com/

Healthy Labs

Healthy Labs builds networks to connect patients so they can learn from one another. 

Link:  http://www.healthylabs.com

Quantified Self

Fitbit dashboard allows you to track daily activity, calories burned, sleep and weight

Fitbit

Track daily activity, calories burned, sleep and weight. Upload wirelessly and see progress on mobile and online dashboard.   

Link: http://www.fitbit.com/

Senti

A record of how you are doing based on your answers to simple questions every day.   

Link: https://www.senti.us/

MoodPanda

MoodPanda is an interactive mood diary/journal that measures and keeps track of your happiness, creating neat pie charts and graphs to show you how you've been feeling over time.

Link:  http://moodpanda.com/

Cancer Oriented Technologies

Avva Advocate is the first and only free breast health iPhone app

Avva – free, comprehensive breast health iPhone app

For all women regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with breast cancer or not, this app helps patients keep track of their mammogram appointments.  If newly diagnosed, this app can also help breast cancer patients prepare for important upcoming visits with physicians. The app helps patients create a list of questions for your doctor by providing patients with highly personalized suggestions. Then, during your visit, save typed notes to your questions or record audio of your conversation. You'll get the most out of every visit and make sure you never forget any of the important information from your doctors.

Link: http://www.avvahealth.com/

Cancer.net Mobile – developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Accurate oncologist-approved cancer information from Cancer.Net, with tools to help plan and manage your cancer treatment and care. 

Cancer.Net Mobile includes up-to-date guides on 120 types of cancer, with information about treating cancer, managing side effects, managing the cost of care, and living with cancer. Use interactive tools to keep track of questions to ask doctors and record voice answers. Save information about prescribed medications, including photos of labels and bottles (on camera-enabled devices). Track the time and severity of symptoms and side effects.

All information on Cancer.Net was developed and approved by cancer doctors who are members of ASCO.

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cancer.net-mobile/id433501257?mt=8