Happtique, a mobile health application store and total app management solution, today announced the commencement of its pilot program of mRx, Happtique's patent-pending solution that enables physicians and other health practitioners to electronically prescribe medical, health, and fitness apps to their patients. mRx is designed to improve communications between practitioners and their patients, patient engagement and adherence, and ultimately patients' health.
"Happtique is pleased to officially launch the mRx Pilot Program. Given the tens of thousands of medical, health, and fitness apps on the market today, patients need guidance from health care professionals as they select and use these apps to manage their health. We also firmly believe that app prescribing will prove an effective tool for facilitating positive patient behavior change, which will foster self-management and monitoring and ultimately result in improved health outcomes and lowered health care costs. We welcome the participation of health care practitioners across the U.S. in our mRx Pilot Program and look forward to receiving their feedback on mRx," said Ben Chodor, Happtique's CEO.
The pilot will focus particularly on cardiology, rheumatology, endocrinology, orthopedics, physical therapy, and fitness training. For these areas, Happtique consulted a specialist in each field and reviewed relevant websites to develop a sample list of apps for each of the targeted areas. Practitioners may prescribe apps from the sample list or other apps of their choice. Licensed or certified health care practitioners in other specialties and disciplines are also welcome to participate in the mRx pilot. Such practitioners may include physicians in specialties other than those described previously, nurses, dietitians, therapists (i.e., physical, occupational, respiratory and speech), chiropractors, social workers, etc. Practitioners in these fields will choose the apps they wish to prescribe. The pilot will focus on the usability of mRx along with practitioner and patient satisfaction. While the pilot will track how many apps are prescribed and how many times the "fill" button is clicked after an app prescription is sent, it will not measure app usage or clinical outcomes.