Researchers in the Sinai App Lab http://sinaiapplab.org at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai http://icahn.mssm.edu have developed RxUniverse www.rxuniverse.com enabling physicians to digitally prescribe evidence-based mobile health apps at the point-of-care. With countless mobile health apps available, there is no standardized method for providers to know which ones will clinically benefit their patients and then share the apps with patients directly.
According to Ashish Atreja, MD, chief Technology Innovation and Engagement Officer and Director of the Sinai AppLab, “Apps have typically been recommended to patients verbally. However, with the myriad of mobile health apps on the market, many with no proven evidence, it is a challenge for providers and patients to find the right app for their needs.”
RxUniverse a part of what is called the “Network of Digital Evidence” (NODE Health) www.nodehealth.org provides a community forum and structure for health system technology experts, digital medicine tech companies, and clinicians and patients, to come together around digital medicine.
The RxUniverse platform was launched in August 2016 in a pilot phase throughout five clinical areas at Mount Sinai. Since then, participating physicians have prescribed more than 2,000 apps exceeding 20 times the pilot goal.
In response, the Sinai AppLab has partnered with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners to launch a new startup company called Responsive Health www.responsivehealth.org which will license RxUniverse for use by other health systems.
RxUniverse isn’t stopping at mobile health apps. The platform can be used to tailor educational content, present patient satisfaction surveys, along with other tools that would be digitally prescribed to individual patients or entire populations of people.