There is a whole app subsector targeting nervous new parents that claim to provide a constant stream of data from body temperature to heart rate, respiration, pulse and movement, to name a few. But a new app developed by a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and HCB Health is limited to the relatively narrow area of baby poop color. The goal of PoopMD is to help parents catch a telltale symptom of biliary atresia — claylike or white colored poop to catch the condition in its early stages.
A public health initiative launched in Taiwan in 2004 was the inspiration for the app. It provided a color chart to parents of newborns highlighting normal and worrying stool colors.
The condition, which occurs in about one out of 14,000 newborns in the U.S., is the leading cause of liver failure in children and the number one reason for liver transplantation in children.
In a phone interview, Dr. Douglas Mogul, who oversaw the development of the app, told MedCity News that if the condition is diagnosed within the first 60 days of life, it can significantly improve outcomes and children are less likely to need a liver transplant later.
The first line of treatment involves surgery to repair bile ducts and restore bile flow to prevent irreversible liver damage, according to a statement from the Children’s Center
The app is available for free for IoS and Android networks. Parents take a picture of the stool and the app helps them categorize it. The app also sends automatic reminders to parents to take pictures of the stool. Users also have the option of sending the images to their pediatrician.
A study of the app showing its effectiveness was published in PLOS One.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The study collected the medical opinions of seven pediatricians who viewed 34 photographs of pale-colored stool. They determined that 27 of the pictures were normal stool, and seven were deemed bile deficient, a red flag for BA, the statement said.
One expert and three laypeople used the app on Apple and Android devices
to view and analyze the same picture in different lighting conditions with a variety of smartphone models.
They took a picture of the stool photograph to determine whether the app identified the photo as normal or pale. In practice, parents will just takes pictures of the contents of a diaper. Even with the picture of the picture, the app correctly identified all of the bile deficient stool samples and correctly identified 24 of the 27 normal stools. Three normal stools were misidentified as “indeterminate.”
