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“Mobile Health” for the Management of Spondyloarthritis and Its Application in China

  • Spondyloarthritis (M Khan, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Rheumatology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of the Review

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a group of inflammatory diseases characterized by inflammation in the spine, peripheral joints, and entheses that usually start at the prime of one’s life and lead to impaired physical function and reduced quality of life. Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is prototype of SpA. This article reviews the opportunities and challenges of using mobile health (mHealth) in managing SpA, and report some of our experiences using a mHealth solution for management of SpA patients and performing related research in China.

Recent Findings

The recent rapid development of mobile communications and the common use of intelligent electronic devices have led to the increasing application of mHealth for chronic disease management by healthcare providers and patients alike. This is a promising new technology that can help mitigate limitations in time and space for patient management, promote easier communication between patients and their healthcare providers, reduce medical expenses, and optimize medical services. We have developed a smartphone-based mHealth SpA management system (SpAMS) that also helps the patients to monitor, manage, and share information on their disease with their physician at regular intervals.

Summary

There is a shift from a paternalistic model of healthcare to more personalized healthcare in which disease management is conducted by the patient together with their healthcare providers. The increasing utility of mHealth is expected to benefit disease management, promote patient–doctor communication, reduce medical expenses, and optimize medical services.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaojian Ji and Lidong Hu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100853, China

    Xiaojian Ji, Lidong Hu, Yiwen Wang, Jian Zhu, Jianglin Zhang & Feng Huang

  2. Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai St Luke’s and Mount Sinai West Hospitals, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Yiming Luo

  3. MetroHealth Medical Center, Khan MA Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44109, USA

    M. A. Khan

  4. State Key Laboratory of Kidney Disease, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100853, China

    Feng Huang

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  1. Xiaojian Ji
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feng Huang.

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Conflict of Interest

Feng Huang is supported by the Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period (grant numbers 2014BAI07B05) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 program) (grant numbers 2014CB541806). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors. All reported studies/experiments with human subjects performed by the authors have been previously published and complied with all applicable ethical standards (including the Helsinki Declaration and its amendments, institutional/national research committee standards, and international/national/institutional guidelines).

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Spondyloarthritis

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Ji, X., Hu, L., Wang, Y. et al. “Mobile Health” for the Management of Spondyloarthritis and Its Application in China. Curr Rheumatol Rep 21, 61 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11926-019-0860-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11926-019-0860-7

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