Healthcare communications software companies Sense Health and Voxiva have merged to form Wellpass, a messaging platform to connect payers, providers and the patients they serve. By joining forces, the two companies are blending sizable customer bases and an experience working with the complex organization structures of Medicaid programs. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed....
Around 11 percent of smokers who participated in a texting-based smoking cessation intervention program were able to abstain from using cigarettes six months after the start of the program, while only 5 percent of smokers in the control group were able to do so, according to a study of 503 people published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Even though 11 percent were found to be...
Text2Quit, the SMS smoking cessation program launched by Voxiva in 2011, has announced that it now has over 75,000 enrollees in every state in the US. Voxiva also told MobiHealthNews that plans are in the works for a Text2Quit app or mobile website.
The company also released some efficacy data, including preliminary data from a randomized clinical trial showing that Text2Quit users had double the...
Harvard Pilgrim is not new to using digital health technology to improve patient care and wellness at home -- the health insurance company worked with health engagement platform Eliza back in 2006 and with smart pillbox maker MedMinder in 2009, before signing its recent deal with Voxiva's Care4Life. But Harvard Pilgrim is careful about the partnerships they engage in, making sure they're both...
Nashville-based Agile Health, a B2B developer of mobile health interventions, announced a major upgrade to its Kick Buts smoking cessation program. Kick Buts is a text-messaging intervention based on software company HSA Global's STOMP platform, which was shown in a 2011 randomized trial in the UK to double successful quit rates over a control group. Agile licenses Kick Buts, along with other...
At times, text messages seem to be the uncelebrated workhorse of mobile health, especially when you compare SMS to health apps in terms of the amount of attention each gets.
While the potential for smartphone apps is still great, adoption across all mobile phone users in the US for apps has remained flat at about 10 percent for the past three years. Once these apps find tighter integration with...
This week, the Cochrane Library published a review of mobile messaging-based smoking cessation interventions. The report found that, based on five studies, with a total of more than 9,000 participants, smokers who used mobile messaging interventions were twice as likely to make it six months without smoking than those who didn't.
"We can’t say from the result that this means all text messaging...
Waltham, Massachusetts-based Alere acquired wireless remote patient monitoring company MedApps last month for an undisclosed sum, MobiHealthNews has learned. MedApps CEO Kent Dicks confirmed the news in an email to MobiHealthNews this afternoon.
MedApps offers a suite of home health devices, including the HealthPAL, a small, portable, dedicated device that the company used to collect data from...
Text4Baby has partnered with Benz Communications to develop a maternal health "toolkit" for employers that aims to help them promote the Text4Baby service and other maternity benefits to employees.
Text4Baby is a free, SMS-based health information service for new and expectant mothers. It is available in both English and Spanish.
Here's how the (former) White House CTO Aneesh Chopra described the...
A preliminary study of Text4Baby's impact found that the service made an impact, according to a new study from researchers at UC San Diego Health System's Department of Reproductive Medicine and the National Latino Research Center (NLRC) at Cal State San Marcos University.
Text4Baby is a free, SMS-based health information service for new and expectant mothers. The service, which launched in...
