IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

120 Chapter 6
Other kinds of decentralized care services offer sophisticated monitoring
devices, tailored treatment plans, and personalized Web pages that store
individuals’ health care data and facilitate regular interaction with health
care professionals. These Web-based health services encourage real-time
patient feedback, provide online tracking to enhance treatment plans, and
facilitate cost-effective patient monitoring. 24 Researchers at Accenture have
developed an online medical cabinet that says things like, ‘‘Good morning,
I have an allergy alert for you.’’ Not only does the online medicine cabinet
know about your allergies, it also monitors other aspects of your health and
tracks whether you’re taking the proper medication. It can also order
drug refills when supplies run low and pass along details about your blood
pressure to your doctor. According to Accenture, ‘‘By using a camera and
face-recognition software, the cabinet can identify different persons in a
household, and their special needs. For example, if an individual suffers
from allergies or asthma, the Online Medicine Cabinet will provide information
such as the day’s pollen count, and remind that person to take their
medicine. Sensors on prescription bottle labels allow the cabinet to identify
each drug and alert consumers if they have taken the wrong bottle—or if
it’s the right bottle at the wrong time. This is vital, because at present,
nearly one third of all hospital visits result from consumers not following
their doctor’s orders or taking the wrong medication.’’ 25
Support networks for less-glamorous conditions, such as mental illness,
are also growing strongly. The Internet is helping to break through the
isolation that often accompanies mental illness as well as providing a
wealth of information on different disorders. David Batty, in the Guardian,
describes how when one patient was diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder, neither his family doctor nor the local mental health team could
offer him much in the way of information about the diagnosis. But the
man soon discovered that the World Wide Web was a prolific source of
advice and information on his condition. ‘‘It’s very difficult to explain the
sense of relief that came with the information I was able to gather from
the net,’’ the thirty-two-year-old patient told Batty. ‘‘Yes, I had a serious
mental health difficulty, but at least I could begin to get to grips with it. I
soon realised millions of people the world over were struggling with the
same behavioural problems. Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so alone.’’ 26
Many mental health caregivers and sufferers from mental health disorders
have set up websites to provide information and mutual support. 27