Chronic diseases are becoming an increasing health burden, not only in Canada, but in many places throughout the world. A patient with a disease, such as Type II Diabetes, needs a great deal of day-to-day monitoring. This degree of close supervision would be impossible for a doctor to deliver and cost prohibitive for most overstretched healthcare systems.

UHN and Mount Sinai Hospital, Canadian pioneers in healthcare solutions, wanted to see if there was a way to transfer the clinical monitoring process to patients in their homes. “There is a movement, starting in the United States, where the patient looks at the healthcare system as the coach,” says Dr. Alexander Logan, member of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and the Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital. “The patient, if properly educated, can really start to manage their chronic diseases.”

In a Canadian government funded trial, UHN and Mount Sinai Hospital investigated various home tele-monitoring systems for Type II Diabetes patients. Most systems were dismissed because they required a technically savvy user and cost too much since an operator was needed as the interface between the patient and healthcare provider.

In a 33-patient trial for Type II Diabetes, conducted in 2006, BlackBerry smartphones emerged as a viable alternative; the solution showed it could increase patient involvement in their own healthcare, without adding more pressure to the healthcare system.