Mining Mobile Health App User Data Liberating Health Data While Protecting Privacy
A conversation with Jacqueline Thong, co-founder and CEO of Ubiqi Health, about disease management mobile applications and how pharma marketers can leverage mobile health apps to engage with and learn from patients.
Ubiqi Health empowers consumers to take an active role in their health by engaging and uniting patients, peers, family members, and physicians through an interactive health management system which includes: mobile and web-based disease tracking tools, reports to share with physicians and family, and an online community. Ubiqi Health’s first application helps migraine sufferers track the frequency and severity of their headaches, treatments used, as well as suspected triggers. The company manages its database and enables partners to access the anonymized patient data for research and lead generation.
Recently, Ubiqi Health’s Migraine Tracker crossed the 1500 download mark. With that critical mass of data in its system, Ubiqi can learn from its users information about the most frequently cited migraine triggers and treatments as well as information about pain scores, migraine duration, etc. All this information is available to 3rd parties — eg, pharmaceutical companies — in user de-identifiable format.
“The downside,” notes Faisal Qureshi, who writes for the Meaningfuluses healthcare IT blog, “is that no one has stepped back and developed some ground rules on patient privacy using mobile.”
“Mobile is seen as a way to liberate health data,” says Qureshi. “But only if the public can trust it to safeguard their data. Unlike desktop medical applications where enterprises created barriers to information, mobile health apps are distributed directly to patient consumers. This is refreshing, in that gathering health data has become extensible, distributable, while at the same time affordable.”
Qureshi cites Ubiqi’s upfront approach to privacy disclaimers.
Some Questions/Topics Discussed:
- How have you acquired your users so far?
- What have you seen are the main drivers for consumers to use your tools?
- How are physicians reacting to mobile apps like yours?
- What kind of data have you been able to collect through your system?
- In what ways do you see that pharma marketers can leverage mobile apps?
- What are some key considerations or challenges when creating healthcare mobile apps?
- What about FDA regulations of apps such as this one? (see Additional Resources)
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Find additional information about this show and the guests here:
http://www.talk.pharma-mkting.com/show134.htm
PMN107-02
Issue: Vol. 10, No. 7
Publication date: 15 April 2011
Word Count: n/a
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