Regulus Communications, Inc. announced today the launch of the first phase of the Health Apps Network, a mobile health information system for patients and health care consumers. It is the first mobile app network for connecting patients and consumers to mobile health information on care providers, health care facilities, and health care product and service suppliers exclusively on mobile devices.
Care App is designed to meet the specific – non-electronic health records requirements – of the HITECH Act (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) regarding:
- Patient access to self-management tools, and
- The empowerment of individuals to improve their health and the health care system.
Patients and consumers also have mobile access to:
- A Health Apps Library with an extensive presentation of health diseases and conditions developed and updated with information from the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Library of Medicine, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as well as connections to health care providers, health care facilities, and health care product and service suppliers.
- An array of Health App Calculators to help promote a healthier lifestyle.
- 24/7 e-mail Support for troubleshooting access to the system on mobile device.
The first phase of the network begins October 1, 2013 allowing care providers, product and service suppliers, and health care facilities to position customized health information apps within the network in advance of the next stage of meaningful use in January 2014. Each provider, supplier, and facility can create a customized health app with multimedia videos, high resolution images, music, and multilingual technologies. Each app becomes an important health resource for patients and consumers across the network.
Care App is designed with HTML5 technology and is primarily for tablets and smart phones but also allows patients and consumers to use a notebook PC as well as popular
e-book readers such as the Kindle Fire and Nook HD. Users are not required to download any of the health information apps on the network.
Besides the innovation of reaching more mobile devices than “apps from an app store” Care App provides every app with these powerful patient oriented compatibility features:
- Patients can go directly to the apps they want simply by using the web browser on their mobile device
- Patients can share the apps they like with their friends on social media with just a simple tap and swipe
- Patients can translate app text into any of 52 different languages
- Patients can listen to the translated text in any of the 52 languages with text-to-speech technology
- Patients can tap and call health providers or suppliers on their smart phone by tapping a single icon
- Patients can bookmark their favorite apps
- Patients can provide immediate feedback to health care providers with fill-out forms to help improve health information and the health care system overall
To review the Care App program including the fees and costs for publishing proprietary mobile health apps to the network see http://regulus.com/CareApp.pdf
