Computer-naïve health workers can use a tablet-based epilepsy diagnosis app

Patterson, Victor; Samant, Shruti; Jain, Yogesh; Singh, Mamta Bhushan

doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.03.011

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Sensitivity was 88% and specificity 100%. The app was shown to be easily-used by 15 computer-naïve village health workers (10). In a further study these health workers used the app to diagnose episodes in 96 patients, both established and newly-presenting; their diagnostic accuracy compared to an epilepsy specialist was 92% compared to 93% obtained by non-specialist doctors (11).…”

Section: A Smartphone Application For Episode Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Epilepsy by Telemedicine in Resource-Poor Settings

Patterson

2019

Front. Public Health

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Epilepsy is a common and treatable disease; in rich countries the expectation is that two-thirds of people will have their seizure episodes controlled on medication. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) however most people are not on treatment either because no doctors live near them or the logistics of affordable drug supply is absent. People with epilepsy then are prone to the bad effects of this disease—death, disfigurement from accidents and burns, and social problems due to the stigma with which the disease is associated. So this represents a failure of conventional face-to-face medicine. Might a telemedicine approach do better? The World Health Organization has suggested that non-physician health workers are empowered to diagnose and manage epilepsy; to do this they will need considerable medical support, which might be provided by telemedicine through the telephone, smartphone applications or a combination. This paper sets out what telemedicine does at present for people with epilepsy in LMICs and suggests how it might be developed in the future.

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Section: A Smartphone Application For Episode Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Epilepsy by Telemedicine in Resource-Poor Settings

Patterson

2019

Front. Public Health

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“…Only two had previous experience of computers or smartphones but 11 of the 13 had a conventional mobile phone. They adapted well to using this unfamiliar technology [14].…”

Section: Community Health Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The NPHWs who participated in this validation study were computerliterate but in the real world many NPHWs may have a very incomplete formal education and no experience of smartphones or tablet computers, although most possess basic mobile phones. We have since shown that a group of computer-naïve NPHWs had no difficulty in the technological aspects of using an app on a tablet computer [14]. The study below reports how these computer-naïve NPHWs, using the app, can diagnose episodes as epileptic or not, and how their accuracy compares to local physicians, with the neurologist's diagnosis as the "gold standard".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnosis of epileptic seizures by community health workers using a mobile app: A comparison with physicians and a neurologist

Patterson

Samant²,

Singh

et al. 2018

Seizure

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“…Consequently, emphasis should be placed on seizure semiology, the circumstances under which the seizure occurred, the convulsive phase and the post-ictal state, information needed for diagnostic classification, treatment modalities, and prognosis [ 11 – 13 ]. This has informed innovations such as use of scoring systems [ 14 , 15 ], smartphone app [ 16 ], and various contact sensors [ 17 ] to improve epilepsy diagnosis. However, these options may not be practicable for low-resource settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration of the Epilepsy Questionnaire for Use in a Low-Resource Setting

Yaria

Ogunniyi

2020

Journal of Environmental and Public Health

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Background. Burden of epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa is huge in the midst of shortage of human resource in its health sector. Using skilled staff to supervise and support lower level healthcare workers providing frontline primary healthcare is a pragmatic coping solution. But, lower level health providers face enormous challenges due to absent clinical algorithms or pragmatic rapid diagnostic tests. Objective. This study aimed to determine if the use of an epilepsy questionnaire in a traditional clinical setting would improve semiological details obtained and diagnostic accuracy. Methods. A prospective study was conducted involving patients diagnosed with epilepsy each with an eye witness who had regularly witnessed the seizures. Routine seizure history from clinical documentation and an interviewer-based questionnaire were compared. The data obtained were assessed for content, accuracy, intermethod and test-retest reliability. Results. Sixty-seven patients with a median age of 24 years were recruited. Routine seizure history had obtained less semiological details with inadequate description of nonmotor manifestations and lateralizing motor details. The questionnaire-obtained history showed higher accuracy for generalized onset seizure (0.83 vs. 0.56) and focal onset seizures (0.79 vs. 0.59). The questionnaire-obtained history also had good test-retest reliability for various semiological domains except automatisms. Conclusions. Routine seizure histories are not standardized. The use of a questionnaire goes a long way in improving semiology description in a low-resource setting and guides the health provider on what details to focus on. The use of epilepsy questionnaires should, therefore, be considered to improve semiology, especially in nonspecialist settings.

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Computer-naïve health workers can use a tablet-based epilepsy diagnosis app

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

Managing Epilepsy by Telemedicine in Resource-Poor Settings

Managing Epilepsy by Telemedicine in Resource-Poor Settings

Diagnosis of epileptic seizures by community health workers using a mobile app: A comparison with physicians and a neurologist

Calibration of the Epilepsy Questionnaire for Use in a Low-Resource Setting

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