Mobile Apps Are Reflecting the Changing Role of the Patient in the Healthcare Ecosystem

Feb 13, 2017

By ALINE NOIZET

The 4th edition of Trophées de la Santé Mobile took place last week in Paris which showcased the best French healthcare mobile apps in different categories.

The winning apps were clearly showing the changing role of the patient in the healthcare ecosystem. The patient is at the center, more informed, and plays an important role in his or her own health. Since the patient has a better understanding of his or her own health, they can detect a disease earlier, co-create their own treatment with the doctor, and adjust it based on the information being continuously collected through apps or wearables.

The winner of the Grand Trophée for this 2017 edition was Novi-Chek, an app that empowers and informs diabetic patients. Developed by Roche Diabetes Care France, Novi-chek is an app for patients who have recently been diagnosed with Diabetes type 1. It supports them during the 1st month of the disease, explaining what diabetes type 1 actually is, the treatments available, why they need to auto-check their glucose level, and how diabetes will impact their everyday life. The patient can also use the app to set up alarms to check glucose levels or enter useful information to track the diabetes.

Another rising trend in healthcare at the moment is the use of Artificial Intelligence to empower patients. There were 2 different projects on stage using AI at the TSM17: Enovap and Symptocheck.

Symptocheck as the name indicates is a symptom checker that can be used by patients to establish a preliminary status of their condition and answer questions such as: is it an emergency? Is it serious? Do I need to see a doctor? Etc. Symptocheck doesn’t replace a doctor nor does it establish a diagnostic but brings you medical orientation and peace of mind, thanks to a powerful software that uses Artificial Intelligence algorithms to narrow down potential diagnostic orientation based on your symptoms.

Enovap is a smart electronic cigarette that helps smokers reduce their consumption and quit for good. It uses Artificial Intelligence to analyse the smoker’s personal daily consumption, delivers the right amount of nicotine for each use of the e-cigarette and progressively reduces it day after day.

Enovap was the winner of the Journées de l’innovation 2017 in the category Connected Device. The other winner of the Journées de l’innovation in the category Mobile App was Mon Coach Douleur, developed by Takeda. This is another good example of patient empowerment as it targets a very important and undervalued aspect of healthcare: pain management. Patients can report on pain they are experiencing during the treatment on a daily basis and share the results with their doctor. The doctor can then modify the treatment or accommodate that pain. Originally developed for oncology, that app is currently used by other patients with different conditions who find a real value in it.

Those awards were organized by DMD santé, who was founded by Dr Guillaume Marchand and Dr Nicolas Lafferre. DMD santé developed a European certification label for Mobile Apps and Connected Devices, called mHealth Quality, which recognizes your app as safe to use, ethical, compliant and valuable.

Winners Trophées 2017:

JNIS Mobile App: Mon Coach Douleur – App to identify and report pain during treatment
JNIS Connected Device: Enovap – e-cigarette that uses Artificial Intelligence to help you stop smoking for good
Coup de Coeur des Internautes: Ben le Koala – App that teaches kids how to brush their teeth and wash their hands in a fun way
App for Professionals: Medpics – App to share and discuss clinical cases between healthcare professionals
App for consumers/Patients: Doctisia – Apps that helps you organize your medical data end prepare appointments with your doctor.
Followup App: Qalyo – App to store, follow up and manage your health data
Grand Trophée: Novi-Chek – App to support patients who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes Type 1.