MyHealth: A System for Monitoring Non-communicable Diseases

Abstract

Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) represent one of the greatest health challenges and cause global concern due to the high costs and the high number of deaths. It has a major impact on Brazil’s public health system and affects all socioeconomic levels, mainly the poor and the elderly. Among the various risk factors, a patient’s lifestyle may lead to complications in their health. Therefore, to prevent and control NCDs it is necessary to promote changes in lifestyle, and to monitor patients. For certain NCDs such as hypertension and diabetes, patients can actively participate in the monitoring process by recording clinical data measured through appropriate equipment. We present in this paper MyHealth, a system that aims to continuously monitor NCDs’ patients, supporting in this way the decision-making by health professionals. This system can contribute to reduce the number of physician’s appointments, to increase the treatment accuracy, and to provide a better quality of life.