[Telemedicine assisted diet and diagnosis management in food hypersensitivity]

Several studies have shown that the current prevalence of food allergy in Western Europe is about 4% and will further increase. Because of missing therapeutic alternatives, food allergy patients are required to identify individual allergens in the daily food by carefully reading the product's ingredient lists. Experiences with other chronic diseases show that a combination of telemedicine and Disease Management (DM) could have a positive impact on medical outcome and health related costs. A new concept of telemedicine support for allergy patients and allergists has been elaborated within the Luxembourgian MENSSANA project. Instead of measuring physiological parameters, a Smartphone based Personal Allergy Assistant (PAA) allows patients to keep an electronic patient diary by scanning the barcode of the consumed food products. For diagnostic purpose, the diary is regularly transmitted to the allergist's electronic patient record. To further support the individual diet management, the PAA gives a warning before consumption of allergenic food. Computer readable food ingredient lists are required for the PAA diet management. To collect this kind of information, a dedicated web-based "virtual community" of food consumers and producers (www.wikifood.eu) has been established. This volunteer network complements an independent product database. Up to now, more than 13.000 food descriptions are public available within wikifood.eu.