New app helps with arthritis treatment

Smartphone App for better arthritis treatment

04/27/2014

It is estimated that around 800,000 people in Germany suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. A physician from Hamburg has now developed a smartphone app with friends to help patients deal with their chronic joint inflammation.

Help for hundreds of thousands of patients
In Germany, it is estimated that around 800,000 people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. Women are affected much more often. Although people of all ages may develop inflammatory joint disease, the incidence of disease increases with age. A new smartphone app that was developed by the Hamburg rheumatologist Peer M. Aries with his friends could help them all in the future. As „The world“ reported, the app allows „Rheumatism Track RA“, to detect a disadvantageous course of the disease early on and, if necessary, adjust the therapy in good time - if need be, even outside the regular appointments with the doctor. However, the app does not replace a doctor visit for patients, as Aries emphasized.

App works like a digital journal
Like a digital diary, the app should work. For example, the patient can record whether he can sprint for a missed bus for another 100 meters or is able to put on a heavy winter coat alone. „He can also record when and, most importantly, where he is in pain today and whether he has taken his medication“, so Aries. In addition, the stock of medicines is recorded, so as to remind the patient to order early new drugs. Furthermore, current other problems, such as increased blood pressure, can be documented. All this information can also be emailed to the doctor to inform him about the current course of the disease.

Improved communication between doctor and patient
Although some doctors would fear that such an app in addition to the normal consultation added an additional virtual, Aries does not share this fear. „If you want an individualized medicine and the patient can handle it responsibly, a new quality of the patient-doctor relationship arises at this level“, so the rheumatologist loud „The world“. The communication between doctor and patient can be positively changed by the app. „Without an app, we would see patients at regular intervals, every six weeks or three months, depending on what stage of the disease they are in. At this appointment, we then ask, 'How are you today?' From the time since the last visit, most patients can then often recapitulate only the last five or six days.“

Suitable to look at the exact course of the disease
As the physician emphasized, the app is good to see how the entire disease has been since then. „Even if the patients do not send me the data by e-mail, but only bring the smartphone for a visit, I can watch every single day and thus the exact course of the disease. We are moving away from this snapshot of the visit in practice to a continuous support“, so Aries. The new app is an important tool on the way to a personalized medicine. The rheumatologist says: „For someone who is tech-savvy, the app is the right one. If we have a patient who is very worried or anxious, I prefer to see him personally in my office hours.“

Adapt therapy to disease activity
The app also helps to implement modern principles in the treatment of rheumatism in practice. „There is good evidence that a decisive factor for the success of the treatment is to be able to closely supervise the patient.“ Since the illness does not change in three-monthly intervals, but also in weekly or biweekly intervals, the patient can be ordered in the situation corresponding distances in the consultation hour. With the app you can always adapt the drug therapy to the respective disease activity. „We want to achieve in patient pain freedom, that no signs of inflammation in the blood are detectable and no increasing changes in the joints in the radiograph occur“, so Aries. However, if the pain in the patient has become more, then the therapy must be adjusted until freedom from pain is achieved. „This is the realization of a therapy concept that has evolved in the last months and years and in which fits our app very well.“

Apps are available for free
„For treatment, different drugs are used, all of which have the anti-inflammatory effect as a goal. In addition to the rapid freedom from pain of the patient but also a destruction of the joints should be prevented“, so Aries. For rheumatism and arthritis also helps active movement. Tens of thousands of patients now regularly use exercise offers from the rheumatism leagues in their hometown. These include, for example, dance classes, tai-chi or yoga. In addition, aqua-cycling or muscle-building training is also part of the medical training therapy (MTT). The first app for rheumatoid arthritis Aries and his friends had developed in 2012 and now revised. New is now an app for rheumatic diseases on the spine (RheumaTrack SPA). The apps can be downloaded for free and are available in German, English, Spanish, French and Turkish. (Ad)