Patients knowing that their health care provider is regularly reviewing their individual results dramatically improves adherence to wellness programs, according to a recent post by Dr. Joseph Kvedar of the Center for Connected Health (CCH) on their cHealth blog. However, Kvedar adds that the increasing use of biometric sensors to provide personal health data to patients needs to be combined with a collaborative environment between patient and physician to be truly effective.

Citing findings from a recent focus group of diabetic patients at the CCH, Kvedar explains that they were much more likely to regularly record their diet and exercise info along with glucose readings if they knew their health care provider would regularly view the data and offer guidance. Further, Kvedar explains that heart failure patients reported that having a nurse check in on their weight increases would help motivate them to more closely monitor their salt intake and fluid restriction.

"Imagine a discussion with your doctor or nurse at your regular office visit. Instead of asking you about your weight, or your recent exercise level, the health professional looks at a screen and begins a dialogue with you about how adherent you have or haven’t been to the care plan you agreed on," Kvedar wrote. "Scary thought? Nowhere to hide? Perhaps, but once you have embraced the need for certain health behavior changes, these tools promote an honest dialogue with your provider."

Last January, Kvedar wrote about how health sensors are improving but not yet elegant. He spoke to MobiHealthNews in 2009 about the future of text messaging in healthcare.

You can read Kvedar's blog post here.