Mayo Clinic researchers found success with an mHealth app – EpiFinder, which can diagnose Epilepsy (A disruption in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures). During recent research conducted at Mayo Clinic, the Epifinder app recognized epilepsy in almost 87percent of the cases.
“The app examines data that is entered into the platform by the clinicians or patients”, said founder Neel Mehta. It’s one of several mHealth devices being used to improve care for people living with epilepsy.
mHealth experts say sensor-embedded wearables can help clinicians to monitor patients dealing with any chronic conditions, like Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure, COPD, and diabetes. By examining data collected by the sensors and comparing this along with other factors such as diet, work-out, moods and even weather, it can decide what causes events like seizures, warn patients when they’re moving toward such an event and adjust care plans to improve overall health.
In the Mayo Clinic study, 57 patients were monitored at the clinic’s Epilepsy Monitoring Unit in Arizona. 53 patients suffered seizures at that time. Using video-EEG (cVEEG) monitoring, doctors found that 26 patients suffered epileptic seizures, while 27 received a different diagnosis. Doctors then entered the information on each seizure into the app. In all, the app accurately identified epilepsy or a different diagnosis in 46 cases.
“The initial testing of the EpiFinder algorithm suggests possible utility in distinguishing between an epilepsy syndrome and an alternative diagnosis in adult patients,” the researchers, led by Erin M. Okazaki, concluded.
They also noted that the app needs more vetting since their research only used doctors who were well-versed in epilepsy treatment. “Further screening of the app among non-epilepsy-specific providers will be important to assess if the current method for gathering data is universally applicable”.
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