Ingrid Knipping is a mental health nurse specialist and researched the use of the @Fisic Medimate for her graduation project.
Ingrid has experienced in practice that people appreciate that they only have to come to their home once for the quarterly lithium check. Most elderly people have no problem with a finger prick. She talks about her experiences in an article about the Point of Care measurement with the Medimate in PlusMinus - the magazine for patients with a bipolar disorder.
“Because you can adjust immediately, you can quickly get people on track. In the summer months it often happens that I adjust the lithium dosage downwards. If it is warm, the lithium level may become too high. The elderly drink poorly, the feeling of thirst is less and the lithium is broken down less quickly. In addition, muscle tissue is converted into fat tissue that retains the medication for longer. This makes the lithium level too high. It is a good device to work with. Setting lithium is also faster. Now you can immediately adjust the policy if necessary.”
As a mental health nurse specialist, Ingrid advocates the autonomy of patients.
“It is important that people are competent with regard to their own condition, so that they become less dependent on care services. No one knows their own body better than the one who takes the medication.
If you take medication for a long time, you know whether it is good or not. If you do the measurement yourself, it becomes more your own thing. It would be a good idea if people with bipolar disorder were given such a device. The own network can play an important role if the patient's lithium level deviates. A patient or person next to the patient performes a measurement, and the result is sent to the practitioner. When things go wrong, they can call for help."
You can read the entire article in PlusMinus about this handy Point-of-Care device via this link.
