Paul Abramson MD, the Quantified Doctor, was interviewed this week in the San Francisco Chronicle about his use of self tracking technologies, in collaboration with “Quant Coach” Lauren DeDecker, to collaboratively help his patients in San Francisco solve vexing health challenges, taking the do-it-yourself Quantified Self approach to a professionally-supervised level.
Most importantly, Dr. Abramson emphasized that self tracking in a medical context has “..made me focus on the fact that medical care is more of a process .. It’s more than just a result.” Far beyond simply using the “medical gadget of the day,” his practice offers a highly-supported environment for patients to gain self knowledge while conducting safe and effective physician-supervised personal health experiments.
An excerpt from the article:
When Dr. Paul Abramson treats patients, he has the usual assortment of medical tools, tests and protocols. And then there’s the patient-gathered data he reserves for his most confounding cases.
Using an iPhone app, Abramson will have a patient with, say, mystifying migraines or seemingly inexplicable stomachaches self-track data such as how much sleep they’re getting or what they’re eating.
That information is eventually fed back to Abramson as potential clues to whatever medical mystery he’s trying to solve. The result is a more complete picture of his patients that in turn makes it much easier for him to figure out what’s going on. […]
Click here for the entire article at SFGate.com (http://www NULL.sfgate NULL.com/health/article/Smartphones-can-gather-important-medical-data-4822516 NULL.php#page-1)
For more information about medically supervised self tracking and the Quant Coach program at My Doctor Medical Group: Click Here (http://mydoctorsf NULL.com/quant-coach-program NULL.html).