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....
Text message reminders that were tailored or included a reminder doubled the chance that expectant and new mothers would receive an influenza vaccine in a new randomized trial of Text4baby, a texting service for new mothers, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. As a result of these findings, vaccination reminders will be incorporated into Text4baby going forward during flu...
A recent study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and Public Health Institute found that Text4baby subscribers are engaged with the texting program, would recommend it to others, and have gained knowledge about critical maternal and child health topics after using it.
The report was produced for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Health Resources and Services...
A new randomized control trial of Text4Baby in military families returned mixed results -- women who engaged in the intervention were more aware and knowledgable about healthy pregnancy strategies, but, at least during the four-week study period, this was not reflected by any significant change in behavior. Study author Douglas Evans thinks a follow-up study to be published later this year will...
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Pennsylvania partnered with Voxiva to launch two text message-based services for their Medicaid benefit plan members. Voxiva also announced this week that more than 1 million people in total have now signed up for its text-based health programs.
The two programs UCPP is offerings its Medicaid patients are Voxiva's Txt4health and Text4kids. Both are available to...
Two years ago, the Russian version of Voxiva's Text4baby text message service for new and expectant mothers, called SMSMame, launched nationwide. Now the program has released survey data from 751 users of the service interviewed either in person or via an online survey. About 1oo of the women surveyed were pregnant at the time, and the others had children under one year of age.
Text4baby was...
Back in August, I wrote about how the rich and famous were adopting health wearables. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Recent Pew data shows that lower income people are the most likely to have one or more chronic disease, but the least likely to use a health app. Developing mobile health technologies for low income and underserved populations doesn't just have the potential to help...
Des Moines, Iowa public health campaign Count the Kicks has added an interactive web app to its existing program, which aims to increase awareness about ways to avoid stillbirths and infant deaths.
Considerable changes in an infant's movement pattern while in the womb can help mothers identify potential problems before the baby's heart rate is affected, the website explains. The American College...
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...
Last week Dr. Peter Budetti, Deputy Administrator for Program Integrity of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), announced the official launch of two new smartphone apps from CMS -- the agency's very first app offerings -- that aim to help physicians and others track payments and other information they receive from the industry as part of the transparency program called the...
