What if there was an app. for that....

I am an industrial design student doing my thesis on the pacemaker phone-checks/ transmitter box. Through my personal experience, being younger and living with a PM for 5 yrs., I have found it difficult to find a working land line that I can use to do my phone checks. With the trend shift in technology moving towards cell phones, I think it would be interesting to see apps. for monitoring your PM. I would appreciate any personal accounts on what you find easy and difficult when using your transmitter box for over the phone check-ups. Stories, experiences, anything would be helpful. No hard feelings, but I am trying to target 40 yrs. old and younger, but more information is better than no information! Feel free to comment if you have suggestions. THANK YOU! -julie

Please let me know if you are younger with a PM. Contact me @ my email julzmullally@gmail.com or send me a private message from pacmaker club.







8 Comments

Strange!

by SaraTB - 2010-11-16 02:11:20

I can see that a young person might think 40+ users don't use apps, smart phones etc, but they'd be dead wrong! Think of the vast number of Blackberry and IPhone users who are in business: most of them probably over 40. The younger users are the ones using smart phone technology for social uses. The real power users are the corporate folks!

For what it's worth, I got my PM at 42. I have it checked by phone - I don't have a landline, but use a Vonage broadband service, and it works perfectly.



age

by Tracey_E - 2010-11-16 06:11:11

tickingaway has a point, by aiming your product at the under 40 crowd you are severely limiting your marketability because being under 70 puts us in the minority, under 40 is a very very tiny percentage of pm patients. I've been a pm patient since 1993 (heart patient since 1970) and just last year my cardiologist got a pm patient younger than me for the first time.

I'm sure you didn't intend to offend and that you have good intentions, but your message doesn't come across as inviting because you're basically saying that the opinions of 95% of the members here don't matter.

@@

by LS - 2010-11-16 08:11:54

Not sure why your target is 40 & under?
Sorry I took the time to answer your survey now.
Liz

Re apps for monitoring

by tickingaway - 2010-11-16 12:11:47

Not sure why you want to target the 40 and under crowd. Most of the PMs are implanted in persons over the age of 60. My EP told me that 76 is the median age for PM implant. So, anything you design, if you intend for it to be commercial success, would have to be useable either with a landline or an ordinary cell phone. I don't think you could convince too many 70 year olds to invest in a smart phone.

App.

by Heidijayne - 2010-11-17 12:11:39

Hey, I'm 24 and have had my PM for 23 years. I have checked it over the phone for most of that 23 years. When I was living with my parents it was no big deal because they had a land line. But ever since I have been on my own and haven't had a land line it has been difficult to find one every month. I used to drag my transmitter box around to friends houses or make the people who check the PM over the phone call back days later when I knew I would be around a land line. I paid for a land line for a while but it wasn't fun spending $20 every month for a phone call I made once a month. If there was an app for that it would make life so much easier.
Heidi

great idea!

by morganbeth44 - 2010-11-19 03:11:34

I am 24 and just got my pacemaker 6 months ago. I have commented a dozen and a half times already about the pain it is to find a landline to transmitt my readings. It's annoying and cumbersome and honestly, I put it off longer than I should because of the frustration I have with the process. Every few months I check on the apps to see if someone has been inventive enough to come up with an app for that :)

Great idea!

by GinaB - 2010-11-21 06:11:34

I'm 37 and just got my PM 2 1/2 wks ago. Had my first phone monitoring a few days ago and it was more trouble than it should have been. We have a landline for calling 911 but the line is often really staticky and sometimes hard to hear. It would be fantastic if it could be an app!!!

ill be ur ginea pig=)

by aya - 2010-11-21 08:11:03

I am 33 with a defib/pm and was diagnosed with cardiac myopathy at 30, so ask away!!

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