Health IT

SocialWellth partners with HITLAB for digital health app certification push

The collaboration marks the first part of a push to establish a standards and certification program for digital health apps called Xcertia.

SocialWellth formed a strategic partnership with HITLAB in the first part of a push to establish a standards and certification program for digital health apps called Xcertia. The collaboration news was timed to coincide with HITLAB’s conference this week.

SocialWellth, founded and led by David Vinson, has an app curation lab that has grown to more than 500 apps. Last year, it supplemented the lab with assets that came from its acquisition of Happtique.

Although app certification programs have claimed that they want to take the wild west out of the app market by vetting apps, they have not had a great track record. One of Happtique’s biggest shortcomings was that it had lax standards on the security of the apps it certified and lost credibility. A program initiated by UK’s National Health Service failed to make it past the pilot stage.

Among the areas Xcertia will evaluate are privacy, security, operability
and content. Vinson said the plan is to launch the program in the first quarter next year.

“Standards alone are just part of the solution. The rapidly evolving digital health market requires us to keep these Standards relevant and reflective of the current and future market conditions. To that end, I have also created the Xcertia Signature Steering Committee to oversee the ongoing evolution of these Standards. This approach ensures that the Xcertia Standards are the definitive set of criteria for evaluating mobile health apps,” Vinson said in a statement.

Validation is all the rage when it comes to digital health apps. Not for many of them. But for those companies developing apps seeking behavior change, improvements in the way people take their medication, helping users understand the connection between their exercise, diet, lifestyle and their health, it’s important that the insurers and providers can quantify their effectiveness if they’re going to recommend. In addition to SocialWellth, Evidation Health validates digital health tools for its clients. Rock Health worked out a deal with Brigham and Women’s Hospital earlier this year to validate its portfolio companies’ technologies.

 

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