A telecommunication monitoring system for clinical and research practice.

Abstract

The telephone has been used in clinical and research practice for many years. A telecommunication monitoring system (TMS) provides an automated way to track patients' and participants' symptoms, compliance, and progress as they participate in therapy and research. Data demonstrating the usefulness, strong reliability and validity, and convincing sensitivity and specificity of a TMS are provided. Future applications of this type of technology are discussed, including the ability to integrate a system with the Internet to create a more comprehensive approach to monitoring patients in therapy and participants in research studies.

An RCT of an internet intervention for pediatric encopresis with one-year follow-up.

“…Six questions track symptoms and behaviors (parental prompting and self-prompting for toilet use, fecal accidents, defecation pain, number of bowel movements in the toilet, and stool consistency). An earlier version of DCSI demonstrated strong reliability and validity as well as convincing sensitivity and specificity (Ritterband et al, 2001).…”

Internet interventions: In review, in use, and into the future.

“…In addition to wireless technologies, older technologies such as the telephone will be better able to interface with some of the newer technologies, including the Internet (see Ritterband et al, 2001). For example, Internet applications can be created to call patients on a regular basis to track progress and symptom relief and prompt for recommended behaviors.…”

“…Identified studies for inclusion in this review are empirically tested, randomly assigned Internet interventions in which a treatment had been developed and operationalized specifically for Web delivery. Tested Internet interventions (see Table 1) include those for smoking cessation (Schneider, Walter, & O' Donnell, 1990), weight loss (Tate, Wing, & Winett, 2001; Winett et al, 1999), headaches (Ström, Pettersson, & Andersson, 2000), body image (Celio et al, 2000; Winzelberg et al, 2000), posttraumatic stress and pathological grief (Lange, van de Ven, Schrieken, & Emmelkamp, 2001), physical activity (McKay, King, Eakin, Seeley, & Glasgow, 2001), panic disorder (Klein & Richards, 2001), tinnitus (Andersson, Strömgren, Ström, & Lyttkens, 2002), diabetes management (McKay, Glasgow, Feil, Boles, & Barrera, 2002), and pediatric encopresis (Ritterband et al, 2003). These studies all focus on behavioral medicine/health psychology issues, which seem to be more adaptable to Internet interventions (Childress & Asamen, 1998) because of the availability of highly structured treatment approaches to many problems…”

A Therapist-Assisted Internet Self-Help Program for Traumatic Stress.

“…Technological advancements in telecommunication have provided the means for effective distance surveillance and support for behavioral health care (e.g., Jerome & Zaylor, 2000; Ritterband et al, 2001). The Internet provides practitioners an additional vehicle to promote mental health, and the use of this modality as an adjunct or stand-alone treatment is gaining acceptance (e.g., Luce, Winzelberg, Zabinski, & Osborne, 2003; Ritterband et al, 2003; VandenBos & Williams, 2000).…”