The U.S. Surgeon General recently challenged mobile device application developers to come up with apps that would “provide tailored health information and empower users to engage in and enjoy healthy behavior.” The first place winner in the Fitness/Physical Activity category was Lose It!, an app designed to help users lose weight. According to the Lose It! website, the average user loses 12.3 pounds with the help of the app, with a 99% success rate (defined as losing any amount of weight) over 4 weeks.
From the Lose It! description on the Surgeon General’s website:
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Lose It! helps users make healthy choices by setting a clear calorie budget, by permitting users to track their fitness and activity level, and by providing them insight into their nutrition (including a great ‘MyPlate’ report on Loseit.com as well a set of badges that reward users for their adherence to MyPlate fruit and vegetable guidelines). In addition, Lose It! integrates with wireless devices such as the Fitbit tracker and Withings wireless scale, making it easy to track your activity and weight change without entering any data in Lose It!
For more information, check out the video below.
The app is consistent with the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which developed the MyPlate website in order to help Americans make healthy food choices that are customized to their needs and activity levels. Another beneficial feature of the Lose It! app over many popular diet strategies and books is that it emphasizes physical fitness as an important and integral part of a long-term weight management strategy and healthy lifestyle, which is also consistent with the recommendations of the federal government.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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