Do-It-Yourself Healthcare Research Papers Examples

BACKGROUND

DIY (Do-it-yourself healthcare) is the leading in terms of issues related to health in the year 2015. PwC released the list of issues associated with healthcare in 2015. On top of the list, DIY is the leading making it a concern to patients and health care providers. In 1990s, the DIY movement began with limited motivation (Barnes et al., 2014). Following the fact that early education concerning disease prevention helped patients to diagnose the symptoms and effects of the diseases (Fox, 2012). Having gone through the education concerning several diagnostics and medications offered by healthcare providers, most patients are able to diagnose the diseases using symptoms as well as provide the necessary treatment of the same.
However, with improved technology and portable healthcare facilities including; genomics sequencing, diagnostic tools, wearable devices used to measure cardiac functions and home laboratory testing tools (Greenspun, 2015). The Internet provides more details in relation to specific symptoms and diagnostic details alongside treatment administered for the same (Barnes et al., 2014). With these factors, most patients are able to perform these diagnostics and treatment without any involvement of a health officer.
The majority of patients ranging from 30% to 45% are able to diagnose a disease and administer treatments without relying on health providers (Greenspun, 2015). High cost of diagnostics and treatment has led to the same with many willing to learn how to diagnose and administer treatments without spending much money and time as well. With a large increase on the world population, most health facilities are crowded by patients prompting many to resolve using home laboratories and administer treatment for themselves without involvement of health providers. On the other hand, some diseases are new and need to be diagnosed by health providers because of their expertise and knowledge concerning the same.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Technology is one of the major drivers used to analyze the dependence on digital tracking, mobile devices and the internet from the year 2010 to 2015. Taking a case study of United States, most physicians and consumers have embraced personal medical kits. It is believed to be a low cost initiative, convenient and efficient in terms of diagnostic and treatment administration. The table 2.1 below shows the statistics collected across the years 2010 to 2015.

However, the DIY can be used to connect the patients to the clinicians whenever they are faced with challenges. Patients suffering from cardiac problems may use devices such as electrocardiography, skin temperature, respiratory rate, activity, posture, and heart rate (Fox, 2012). The details collected are sent to the clinicians for diagnosis and prescription respectively. The medication can be delivered from the hospital or from the pharmacy.

PROBABLE STAKEHOLDERS

Currently, digital health companies have bolstered their regulatory savoir-faire. Most developers often intend to answer any threshold question such as: Does my manufactured goods need regulatory review? However, not all will. Nonetheless, some products may be well advantaged from a controlling stamp of approval. The below figure 3.1 shows some of the products available for DIY.
Figure 3.1 Devices used for DIY
Consumers discreetly manage and track their health without much help from the health providers making it simple and easy to diagnose and administer treatment immediately one is found positive (Fox, 2012). In this progress, there are several stake holders, including; AT&T, Ford company, SapientNitro agency, health providers, mobile providers, internet providers and consumers. It is very simple to perform tests and provide necessary treatment when one is guided by the health providers or follow the instructions available online (Dalton, 2014). Since majority of consumers are knowledgeable, they are able to read and write making this process much easy. Mobile devices such as Jawbone’s up are used to transmit pictures and record details pertaining to the disease that is diagnosed by the patient himself or herself.

LOGICAL CONCLUSIONS

With devices such as Lifelens, Skin scan, withings blood pressure monitor, digifit ecosystem and play it down app enables users to test, monitor, diagnose and record details pertaining to their ailment. Some users are able to record their heart space, speed, power and rate. With chronic conditions such as asthma, fever and diabetes can be checked in time and tracked using Ford’s SYNC Applink software and treatment to be administered immediately to save the patient from further pain or even death (Budryk, 2014). Currently, there is a steady increase of the use of apps devices and software to manage and diagnose different types of ailments.
Some clothes are embedded with devices used for health monitors measuring things such as body temperature and heart rate (Budryk, 2014). Once these records are captured, they are uploaded to a website dedicated for the same. With more apps devices, smart phones and apps have enable many consumers to achieve the possible diagnostics and transmitting the data to the same website (Fox, 2012). Using data streaming and records stored on the website, it is possible to have a proper treatment immediately the diagnostics results are transmitted to the website. It helps save a lot of time when results are checked and confirmed by health providers managing the website. It is possible to have every person in the world to manage their own health without spending a lot of money and time finding the type of ailments one is suffering from, help save time and create more online jobs for health provides.
However, there are challenges that come with the same (Fox, 2012). These challenges include; lose of jobs for lab facilitators, some patients may make mistakes when trying to get diagnostics, some patients may offer themselves prescriptions without doctors consent or without prior knowledge of the same, some patients may share devices already used by someone else making these facilities vulnerable to users themselves (Barnes et al., 2014). Some consumers may not be aware of the risk they may go through when the diagnostic devices get in the hands of unauthorized individuals and children. They may pose danger to those who use them wrongly hence must be kept under great care and observation (Fox, 2012). The devices are made for every age group and this must be hidden by all consumers. In addition, some of the aps devices are quite expensive hence not everyone is able to afford the same. Therefore the government should encourage citizens to embrace the same by reducing the prices of such home devices.

REFERENCES

Barnes, K., Connolly, C., Gitlin, J. (2014). Top health care industry issues of 2015: outlines of a market emerge. Available at: < http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/health-industries/top-health-industry-issues/assets/pwc-hri-top-healthcare-issues-2015.pdf>
Budryk, Z. (2014).Fierce healthcare: 7 emerging healthcare trends. Available at: < http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/7-emerging-healthcare-trends/2014-12-04>
Dalton, A.R.H. (2014). Do-it-yourself Healthcare: The current landscape, prospects and consequences. Available at: < http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378512213003332.pdf>
Fox, N. (2012). Trent Focus for Research and development in Primary health care. Available at: < http://web.simmons.edu/~tang2/courses/CUAcourses/lsc745/sp05/observation.pdf>
Greenspun, H. (2015). A view from the center: The opportunity in do-it-yourself health care. Available at: < http://blogs.deloitte.com/centerforhealthsolutions/2015/01/my-take-the-opportunity-in-do-it-yourself-health-care.html#.VNIy6y4_j0Y.pdf>