Mobile health round-up: November

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eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Waitemata and Auckland DHBs launch cultural app

Pronunciation of te reo Māori, cultural protocol and waiata are the main focus of a new mobile app launched by Waitemata and Auckland District Health Boards.

Chief advisor of tikanga at the DHBs Rangimarie Naida Glavish says Āke Āke was born out of a desire to raise cultural awareness among healthcare staff.

Āke Āke took a year to develop and includes an interactive user-friendly guide to Māori customs and traditions. It enables users to understand the pōwhiri process and get to know the layout of a marae. It also has an easy-to-use audio feature to help people with their pronunciation and the ability to write their own mihi, a formal introduction in te reo Māori.

Wearable digital health device finalist in international award

A digital healthcare device invented by Victoria University design students is one of the international finalists for the James Dyson Award 2018. It is one of 20 finalists in the awards chosen from thousands of entries across 27 countries.

MEDMO is designed to help manage medical drains. It consists of a monitor for fluid flow and a small device that sticks onto a patient’s skin. The device will buzz when the drain is full or when there’s a blockage or other issue.

Patients can also download an app that allows them to monitor the device and other basic health measurements such as body temperature.

Firstcheck teledermatology platform harnessed for scabies study

The University of Auckland public health researcher Simon Thornley has launched a study to investigate the use of New Zealand firm Firstcheck’s smartphone app and dermatoscope to help detect scabies.

Thornley’s research has shown that not only can misdiagnosis of scabies often lead to complications such as bacterial skin infections, infestations of the mite are also common in areas with high rates of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

The Firstcheck platform, which was originally developed to check for skin cancers, consists of a dermatoscope to take magnified photos of the area of concern and a smartphone app that sends the photos to a specialist.

Thornley is evaluating the teledermatology platform’s potential as an affordable addition to routine primary care to improve the identification of scabies and diagnosis.

Otago study finds mindfulness apps can improve mental health

A University of Otago study has found that using mindfulness meditation apps on phones is associated with improvements in people’s mental health.

In a randomised controlled trial, mindfulness app users reported modest improvements in depressive symptoms, resilience, mindfulness and college adjustment relative to control participants, as well as broader improvements relative to their starting mental health.

Those who continued to use the apps frequently were more likely to maintain improvements in mental health until the end of the study.

Lead author Jayde Flett says mindfulness apps represent a promising opportunity for improving mental health given their “light touch”, ease of use, availability and accessibility.

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