Mobile round-up: October

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eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Dr2Go releases mobile app

Doctor2Go has released an Android and iOS app that provides access to its medical team to everyone across New Zealand. Anyone aged over 16 can have a consultation costing $59 for up to 15 minutes, which is charged via Google Play or Apple Pay.

The Doctor2Go website says people may first be connected to a registered nurse before to a doctor. The app doesn’t require people to enrol, so patients can keep their current GP and can request to have their Dr2Go medical records sent to them.

Nursing lecturer develops weight-estimation app

Auckland University of Technology lecturer in nursing Sally Britnell has developed a prototype mobile app for use in paediatric resuscitation based on big data provided by Stats NZ.  

Called Weight Estimation Without Waiting, the app uses augmented reality and photogrammetry to estimate the weight of a child and is made more accurate by known characteristics such as gender, age and ethnicity.

Britnell says it is designed to take out the ambiguity and inaccuracy of current methods of weight estimation. She has been working on the app since 2015 as a part of her PhD after her interest was sparked when working as a nurse in the emergency department at Starship Children’s Hospital.

The prototype is being user tested and is not available to the public yet. Britnell will be presenting on the app at the HiNZ Conference 2018 in Wellington next month.

Telstra Health releases Drs App

Doctors at St John of God Health Care hospitals in Australia have better access to secure, real-time patient information, key diagnostic test results and theatre schedules thanks to a new mobile app developed by Telstra Health.

Created in conjunction with specialist doctors, Drs App enables hospitals to provide specialists with secure access to important patient information on their own compatible mobile device, enabling timely clinical decision making from more places, be it in theatre, during ward rounds or in their own rooms.

Telstra Health says the app provides a more efficient and convenient experience for doctors, delivers efficiencies in hospital administration and helps improve the patient experience by enabling doctors to spend less time on unnecessary administrative tasks and more time on communicating with and caring for their patients.

You can hear more on the app at Telstra Health’s stand at the HiNZ Conference 2018 in Wellington next month.

F*ck Depression now available for kids as Kick Depression

The F*ck Depression e-book – which had more than 20,000 downloads last year – has been re-released as a child-friendly version called Kick Depression.

Developer Jack Stack says it is an accessible, easy to read, easy to relate to e-book for people with depression that offers immediate ways to help alleviate their mood.

Stack wrote F*ck Depression last year, as a blunt, humorous and scientifically accurate tool for people battling depression.

He was recently asked to write a child-friendly version after a school principal contacted him, having seen one of his pupils with the adult version in class. The version for children and teenagers is written in a way that they can relate to, to help them deal with their own mental health issues.

Starship trials effectiveness of YouthCHAT

Starship Children’s Hospital is tracking the effectiveness of an electronic, tablet-based, self-report screening tool for reducing New Zealand’s youth suicide rate.

YouthCHAT, developed by Felicity Goodyear-Smith from the University of Auckland, assesses health-related behaviours and mental health concerns, including those that may lead to suicide.

A trial at Auckland’s Tamaki College compared the use of YouthCHAT with the HEEADSSS assessment, used by most GPs and practice nurses, and found the YouthCHAT screening was done in half the time and that young people found it more acceptable to answer questions in a digital environment.

The trial is continuing and if successful, the tool could be piloted in other schools, GP practices and nurse-led youth clinics.

AuramerBio to trial first biosensing product

AuramerBio, a biotech company spun out of the MacDiarmid Institute, is about to field trial a handheld device that can be used on the roadside, in workplaces or in hospital triages to test for recreational drugs.

Newsroom reports that in three minutes a saliva sample can identify whether a person has taken any of six recreational drugs. Unlike traditional roadside testing units, AuramerBio’s device can detect the levels of drugs in saliva, not just the presence.

In the future, the technology could be applied by GPs, who could test patients’ saliva and get instant results during a consultation, without having to take any blood.

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