NUTRI-APP

TELECARE SYSTEM FOR MONITORING, EDUCATION AND NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT OF PATIENTS IN AREAS OF DIFFICULT ACCESS IN PANAMA

Abstract

Surveys carried out in 2018 by the Ministry of Health (MINSA) of Panama, revealed that at the national level there are only nine hundred and seventy-four (974) nutritionists for 4,158,783 inhabitants in the Panamanian population. These nutritionists are concentrated in the metropolitan area of ​​the city and few are found in rural and semi-urban areas. Based on the above, the creation of an application (APP) for mobile phones was proposed that will provide support to nutrition professionals by remotely providing monitoring, education and nutritional assessment services to patients. Nutri-APP will be designed and implemented, which is a Mobile Health (mHealth) system that will allow remote communication, facilitating a virtual perception between the patient and the nutritionist in order to achieve an efficient and safe exchange of information. The present study was developed through applied scientific research, two surveys designed to collect information were carried out, determining the viability of Nutri-APP. Finally, the relevance of our Nutri-APP system could be corroborated since it would facilitate the work of clinical nutritionists in the process of monitoring, education and nutritional assessment of patients in remote areas.