eHealth & quality of life 2

In collaboration with students of the master Global Health and the patient expertise team of IKONE the contribution of eHealth to the quality of life for people with a chronic disease was studied. Four very insightful interviews on eHealth innovations in relation to quality of life were conducted.

Today we publish the second short summary of an interview with a member of the patient expertise team.

Interview with Laura Dieleman de Bruijn 

We are not always aware of the presence of technology in our daily lives! 

Throughout the conversation with Laura Dieleman de Bruijn, it became very clear that pain is a permanent factor in her life. When she was only fifteen years old when she was diagnosed with gallstones. Due to the severity of her condition, doctors decided to put her in a coma to conduct surgery on her. For the next three to four months she was in a coma and a total of 40 surgeries were performed. After this hospitalization she was diagnosed with critical illness polyneuropathy (CIP). The syndromes are of diffuse, symmetric and flaccid muscle weakness. It makes people more unwell and is a major cause of long-term difficulties with movement. 

When approaching the use of technologies in her life, Laura was not at first fully aware of the fact that it is a constant variable in her life. Any kind of technology turned out to be of importance to her on various levels. She is in constant use of multiple Apps that facilitate her daily life routine. Also, the use of the internet is a necessity for her work life. Features such as shock-therapies help to regenerate the nerves and to cope with pain. 

Conclusionally, it is possible to say that Laura has a very positive attitude towards technologies, even though some of them have only been helpful for a short period of time throughout her disease, but not on a long lasting basis. Therefore, there are more advantages than negative features in using technology for her personally. When it comes to quality of life she repetitively expressed her interest towards a universal healthcare data as a main importance for her. The main issue lies within a more easy and all-time access for healthcare professionals.

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