Health management specialist Health Diagnostics Laboratory (HDL) and MedHelp, a provider of social and mobile health solutions, have partnered to create myHDL, a mobile app that pairs lab results with health tools and social support to help patients improve their overall health.
A free app available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play, myHDL helps consumers make lifestyle changes to lower their risk profile, and allows users to collect personal data (activity, sleep, weight and blood pressure) through the health device of their choice (such as Withings and Fitbit) and sync the data directly to the app.
Through the Red Urchin platform, all information tracked through the health devices and mobile apps is pulled into HDL’s patient portal. This allows the consultants to better understand users’ behaviors, track users’ progress and personalize their advice so that coaching sessions become more meaningful and effective.
“With HDL’s advanced lab testing and MedHelp’s Red Urchin health technology platform, this partnership gives users the information, tools, coaching and support they need to avert some of the most common and costly chronic diseases,” John de Souza, MedHelp’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are excited to work with HDL to create the best mobile solution to engage consumers in their health and effect meaningful behavior change.”
Users can also track their food, exercise and weight through integration with MedHelp’s diet app My Diet Diary and take pictures of their food with MedHelp’s Pic Healthy mobile app.
In addition, the app provides a variety of social and mobile functionalities to enable users to track their health, call and ask questions to clinical health consultants directly from within the app, and get support from a peer community.
“We have always said that HDL is a health management company with advanced lab services, and having a tool for our tech-savvy patients to engage in their own health was an important tool for us to offer as part of our mission,” Tonya Mallory, president and CEO of HDL, said in a statement. “We encourage our patients to get the app, review their results, track their fitness and diet, and use myHDL to help maintain a healthy, long-lasting lifestyle.”
The myHDL app also gives users access to MedHelp’s support communities where 14 million monthly users exchange advice on diet, fitness, weight loss, heart disease, diabetes and other health concerns. The app is due for full-scale launch in early 2014, a company release noted.