The Ménière’s Monitor app allows users to record and monitor the symptoms of their condition on a daily basis.
It is a free app for both iPhone and Android Phones.
What is this app aiming to do?
Ménière’s disease is a poorly understood condition that has received limited research attention.
This app is part of an ongoing research project that’s hoping to shed light on the factors that influence and exacerbate symptoms. It will focus on how environmental factors, such as weather and pollen, might affect people’s disease.
It also provides a useful tool for users to manage their own condition, graphically presenting data that can be reviewed and shared with consultants and GPs.
How does it work?
You download the Ménière’s Monitor app from the Apple or Android app store.
We remind you once a day to input your current symptom levels for tinnitus, hearing, vertigo and aural fullness.
The data gets sent back — anonymously and securely — to our data store, along with your approximate location from the phone’s GPS.
Am I eligible to take part?
You can take part in this study if you live in the UK, are over the age of 18, have received a diagnosis of Ménière’s disease, and have experienced symptoms of the disease within the last year.
You will need a smartphone and you must be happy for us to collect your location data using your phones global positioning satellite (GPS).
Ménière’s patients outside of the UK can also download and use the Ménière’s Monitor, but their data will not be included in our research as we only have access to environmental databases from the UK.
What’s in it for users?
Users can record and review interesting information about their condition, which can be downloaded or viewed on charts inside the app.
This information can be easily shared with doctors to provide a clear picture of the pattern of symptoms and their severity.
By contributing to our understanding of Ménière’s Disease, users can help others living with the condition.
What’s in it for researchers?
We are interested in what influences the symptoms of Ménière’s and want to push forward research in this condition to improve advice and care for patients.
We need a lot of data to be confident in our findings, so the more people who take part the more robust our conclusions will be.
We’ll be publishing the results in academic journals and also making them available to everyone who takes part.
Who’s behind Ménière’s Monitor?
The Ménière’s Monitor was created by Dr Jess Tyrrell, a researcher experienced in using large databases to examine rare diseases. Jess is based at the University of Exeter Medical School and has worked closely with Buzz Interactive - experts in developing apps and games - to produce the tool.
We want to better understand Meniere’s disease and what factors influence people’s symptoms. We also hope to investigate whether any patterns exist in symptom severity to see if people experience bad days on the same day.