Singapore’s first smartphone health diary application for rheumatoid arthritis will empower patients who suffer from the debilitating condition to accurately monitor their disease and get timely medical help.

Using an easy questionnaire that tracks patients’ daily activities, level of pain and general health, they can input data through their phones. The health diary application will then calculate the severity of their condition and present them in graphs or tables that both patients and caregivers can easily read, and print out to show their doctor.

It is estimated that about 45,000 people in Singapore suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease that requires long-term care and monitoring to minimise its impact on patients’ daily lives. The joint inflammation and pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis can commonly impair patients’ ability to function and lead to work disability.

Associate Professor Julian Thumboo, Head of SGH’s Rheumatology & Immunology department said: “Disease control for rheumatoid arthritis is crucial as joint inflammation can cause pain and joint damage, which can lead to disability and affect patients’ quality of life. With the health diary application, patients and their caregivers are able to track pain and functional levels in a systematic and research-validated manner, even between their appointments with their doctor. These results empower patients to take a more active role in managing their arthritis, supplement doctors’ assessment of patients and help them to effectively manage the patient’s condition.”

The health diary application, developed by Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) for SingHealth and SGH, is easy-to-use, easily accessible to patients and caregivers, and facilitates patient-doctor communication during medical consultations. It can also record information on the patient’s affected joints, medication taken and laboratory results. Such information helps patients identify disease progression by observing the number of painful joints and any correlation between new drug regimes and side effects experienced. It also provides caregivers with an organised framework to record the patient’s condition. This is especially helpful for patients with multiple caregivers as each caregiver can assess the patient’s record on the application through a common password.

SingHealth’s Group Chief Information Officer, Mr Benedict Tan, said: “Singaporeans are becoming increasingly connected and there is an increasing trend towards the adoption of smartphones, mobile computing and mobile Internet. The smartphone health diary application for rheumatoid arthritis is one of the projects that SingHealth has in the pipeline that harnesses mobile phone technology. We are currently working closely with Integrated Health Information Systems to create new health diary applications for the management of other chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and renal disease for patients on peritoneal dialysis, or who have undergone transplants. By providing patients with these applications, we hope to empower and encourage them to play a more active role in managing their condition. ”

Dr Chong Yoke Sin, Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Health Information Systems, said: “IHiS and the healthcare clusters are now developing and piloting various innovative approaches to using phone technology to improve patient outcomes, reduce unnecessary hospitalisation and healthcare costs. These range from mobile web applications and software to tele-health hubs, and remote home monitoring devices for various chronic diseases. We are also working to integrate these new tele-health solutions into the clinical workflows and IT-healthcare infrastructure such as the medical records systems.”

The smartphone health diary application for rheumatoid arthritis, an SGH-initiative is accessible at https://mobilecare.sgh.com.sg.