Nutrition meets medication management in a new collaboration between mobile health startup Medisafe and Nestlé Health Science. In some ways, it’s a thinly veiled ad campaign for Nestlé’s pre-surgery nutrition drink, but it’s also a way to engage patients to help prevent surgical infections.
Tuesday, Boston-based Medisafe announced that it would work with Nestlé to deliver reminders for patients awaiting major elective surgery to take a serving of the food giant’s Impact Advanced Recovery nutrition drink. The two companies said they are teaming with “a number of major hospital systems across the U.S.” to help patients download the Medisafe mobile app whenever physicians recommend Impact Advanced Recovery.
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Medisafe, which has roots are in medication reminders, will send alerts to patients when it’s time to pour a glass of the Nestlé drink as they prepare for surgery. Nestlé also will deliver educational content to these users, though patients in the program will have full access to all Medisafe features.
While there’s a clear commercial interest here, Nestlé said there are clinical benefits as well.
“In study after study, strong compliance to Impact formulas in the perioperative protocol has been shown to support the immune system to help promote recovery after major elective surgery,” Nestlé Health Science marketing official Hoddy Klein said in a statement.
“We believe the Medisafe application has the potential to significantly increase adherence to the Impact protocol that is recommended for certain major elective surgery patients by their healthcare professionals, and we look forward to seeing the positive results of this collaboration in the months ahead,” Klein added.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
“Partnering with Nestlé Health Science is one in a series of initiatives that will make Medisafe available to healthcare providers so that they can help people take more control of their health,” Jon Michaeli, Medisafe’s marketing executive vice president, said.
Indeed, two weeks ago at HIMSS16, the company introduced a program called Medisafe Providers, a professional version of the consumer app. Medisafe Providers allows physicians, care teams and pharmacists to track and manage patient medication adherence between office visits.
Photo: Medisafe
