Graham Dodge, the founder and CEO of Sickweather, is less than thrilled that a company appears to have ripped off its logo and latest app name in Apple’s iTunes iStore. Sickweather has a mobile health app that filters social media chatter to identify public health trends.
What’s particularly galling is that it hoped to use the recent mHealth summit to show off its latest app developed for companies to predict in advance disease trends affecting their employees. It’s also intended to give hospitals more tools to prepare for flu and other illnesses in their communities.
A company called Tube Emoji is using Sickweather’s logo in Apple’s App Store, Dodge said. Emoji is a Japanese word that describes smileys and emoticons that have been widely adopted in many forms of communication from mobile phones to Unicode.
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Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Although the description of the Sickweather Pro on the store’s website claims to be a Doppler radar for sickness, the store categorizes the app for weather and art from the app only shows weather radar images of storms. Sickweather is designed to use social media to track illness trends in cities and towns around the U.S. and its appearance is much different.
Sickweather’s actual app looks much different in iTunes.
If you click on the link to Tube Emoji’s website in the app store, it takes you to the Moviefone website.
Apple has come in for criticism for the way it screens apps for its store in recent years, as have Android and Windows. Apple’s iTunes website includes a statement on piracy prevention and directs people to report problems.
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.
It’s a reminder of some of the very real risks facing the digital health sector as companies push for physicians to prescribe apps. Better security and constantly improving the vetting process beyond a buyer beware policy are a critical part of instilling confidence in health apps.
