Pfizer raising funds for new population management healthcare app

Walking down any street at any time of day show us just how connected to our mobile devices we are. We can search for restaurants, find directions, shop and soon have all our medical information at just the click of a button.

Pfizer has started funding for a trial of its app for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients that uses population management systems to track patient activity between doctor visits, as well as offering a population manager that monitors patient data and alerts physicians to increases in disease activity.

Population management is a means of gathering patient data from multiple health information technology resources into one system.

Researchers for the app stated, “the combined smartphone app plus population management system will improve patient satisfaction and management of RA disease activity. The rationale is that the smartphone app will increase patient involvement in disease assessment, while the population management system will support the integration of patient‐reported data into the workflow of a busy clinical practice.”

“Regardless of technology, our goal is to develop meaningful solutions to help patients in living with their conditions and support their discussions with their HCPs throughout their treatment journey. When we develop mobile apps, we think about three core things—how a mobile solution can fit an unmet need, how it can be a seamless experience for our users, and how we can continuously improve that experience," a company spokesperson said.