eMonitoring tools
Self-Management Electronic monitoring tools
In the eMonitoring project we aimed into providing one of the most complete and state-of-art electronic monitoring package currently available for assisting our Bipolar patients to monitor themselves. Our self-monitoring systems range from self-report electronic mood diaries to electronic medicine caps. Although these devices are not currently available in everyday clinical practice, we feel that they have a lot to offer to Bipolar clinical care. It will not be too long before every Bipolar patient and their doctor will have such tools in their arsenal.
ChronoRecord
This is our desktop based mood diary. It runs on a PC with a windows operating system. It monitors mood, sleep, life events, medications, menstrual period, and weight. It is very simple to use and all the screens are presented with nice big and colourful icons. ChronoRecord has been well validated in the States, and every since its validation it has spread across the world. ChronoRecord is based on the paper methodology, ChonoSheet, devised by Dr. Peter Whybrow, M.D. (UCLA), and was programmed by the non-profit ChronoRecord Association (Tasha Glenn). Dr Michael Bauer (University of Charite, Berlin) has been instrumental in the continuing scientific validation of ChronoRecord. For further information you may visit ChronoRecord’s website http://www.chronorecord.org
iMonitor
This is our own custom made mood diary! It runs on a nice little white Palm Zire device. Its key feature is its simplicity. Everything works with a touch of the button (what we like to call as “finger-mode”). Our participants are asked a series of brief questions about how they have been on each day, and in less than 5 minutes we have a good picture of their state for each day. Because everything is done in a question-answer format, iMonitor can track a few more variables than ChronoRecord - such as function, activation, and more specific bipolar symptoms. iMonitor is at its infancy at the moment and this is its first study. It needs a warm welcome!
(Note: The amazon product image link displays a Palm Zire 22 device similar to the ones used in the project. The device does not include the iMonitor software that is required for your mood monitoring. The iMonitor software is not yet available to the public but you can register your interest using our contact form)
Actiwatch
This is a very interesting and promising little device that has a small microchip called “an Accelerometer ” whose job is to pick up motor activity. It is worn like a wrist-watch. Although it cannot tell the time, its little brain records every little movement, and this can give us a more objective measurement of how depressed or possibly activated (manic) one can be. Unfortunately, because it is very expensive, it has seen very limited use in Bipolar disorders and in similar projects like our own.
However, the Actiwatch has been used a lot in sleep research as it is very good at picking up when one is asleep or when one is up and about. At any event this will help us to evaluate how good one can be in self-reporting their sleep and activity patterns. The other advantage of this little device is that it requires little work - all it takes is to put it on! Therefore, it should provide valuable data for patients who are too unwell (or too well) to do their daily self-monitoring.
Finally, it is important to re-iterate that these devices are self-management tools (not “big-brother” devices) and we believe they are there to help anyone’s efforts to monitor themselves. Our intention is to use them toward this end, and to support our participants as much as we can in order to make their self-monitoring efforts as efficient and as painless as possible.
