It is always best when your patients ask questions. This means that they are concerned and are making the required effort to improve their physical condition and well-being. When patients are more aware and want to be involved in their health management, especially when it comes to making health-related decisions, it is safe to deduce that the care process will yield favorable outcomes.

However, not every physician is comfortable with the idea of shared responsibility or patient empowerment. As healthcare management and patient cases become more and more complex, an additional participant willing to share responsibility with the physician does not seem such a bad idea. This was not the case in the past, with limited technology and tools for patient engagement.

In the last decade alone, the number of advanced healthcare management tools has increased exponentially. There are devices like health activity monitors, blood glucose monitors, real-time heart rate trackers, mobile health apps and most recently headphones with built-in blood pressure monitoring. All of these advancements have been driven by a modern patient’s need to monitor his or her own health. As history suggests, the first usage of pedometers dates back to the 17^th century, when they were used to measure travel distances. The need for constant health monitoring has grown tremendously, and today smartphones can track and share real-time activity like walking, sleeping and running.

For both patients and consumers, these devices are really helpful for a multitude of reasons. But for physicians, they provide an even bigger benefit – the ability to engage patients in their own health management and better compliance.

Traditional patient data collection methods have been far less successful as patients had to maintain a log, which they would not always remember to bring in when coming for follow up visits, and this often led to a disconnect between providers and patients. With the availability of more advanced personal health technology, physicians are able to get real-time updates and remotely monitor key health metrics, especially for patients suffering from chronic diseases.

Compliance is one of the biggest challenges in managing patients. When patients are on their own, they often struggle with changing lifestyle regimes related to diet or exercise, which can affect the quality of data being sent to their physicians. Mobile health applications can serve as useful reminders for managing patient health, as they serve as an intermediary between doctors and patients.

Through mHealth apps, patients can track their blood sugar levels, check weekly trends and are able to make adjustments to their insulin intake without consulting a doctor. Similarly, upcoming technology will help patients suffering from chronic asthma by generating an automatic alert to increase their medication dosage and at the same time alert their physician for an urgent appointment. This is something that will be a reality in the not-too-distant future.