A screen capture from the award-winning helio app trailer animation.
A screen capture from the award-winning helio app trailer animation.

At INVIVO, we believe that creating truly innovative mHealth apps can improve patients’ lives. Our efforts were recently rewarded when a pilot app, created for Novartis, received a prestigious eyeforpharma award.

The awards were held last week in Philadelphia, and the Helio COPD patient companion app (now re-branded as Volari), won the Most Valuable Patient Initiative Award. This pilot was developed to help empower patients with COPD to change their behavior for a better quality of life.

When we performed a survey of contemporary health applications, looking at broad trends, such as design and functionality, we found that most mHealth apps were essentially detailed journals, providing data, but not much insight. Our goal was to change that by taking a patient’s health and adherence data, and turning it into compelling insights about their own health. This, in turn, would encourage them to continue their treatment. The more that they used the application, the more useful it would become.

Six months after launch, almost half of the patients were still using the app on a daily basisIn order to maintain user engagement, we incorporated gaming elements, such as badges and unlockable achievements that could enhance the user experience. And it worked – after 6 months, almost half of the patients in the pilot program continued to use the app on a daily basis.

award_eyeforpharma

Thank you to eyeforpharma, the judges, and our partners at Novartis for this wonderful recognition.


Follow eyeforpharma on Twitter @eyeforpharma. Read more about Helio on eyeforpharma: The power of apps and Customer-Centric Innovation Showcased at eyeforpharma Philadelphia Awards.