MyiMonitor.com v. 1: a user-friendly mobile electronic diary for bipolar patients

Subsyndromal symptoms and daily symptom variability is a potential risk factor for bipolar relapse. iMonitor is a mobile palm based electronic diary that was developed to measure this variability and to assist bipolar patients to track the daily course of their illness. iMonitor was designed to measure day to day fluctuations in bipolar symptom states and to track core features of the bipolar illness, such as sleep duration, mood variability, function, activation, self-esteem variability, medication adherence, and life events using visual analogue scales (VAS) following the NIMH-LCM method. In addition, a special feature of iMonitor is its ability to customise itself to each patient's relapse signature and to allow the tracking of more individual signs of relapse. The current version of iMonitor was developed to run on the cheapest possible handheld devices (Palm OS) in order to facilitate the application of electronic monitoring in low income patients who do not have access to personal computers (PCs) and the internet. The design of iMonitor appears relatively simple but this was based on advanced usability principles that serve to ensure an effortless user experience. Preliminary validation data have been gathered in the Maudsley Bipolar eMonitoring Project, and will be briefly discussed.