Reproductive health app wins health and fitness Webby
Wednesday, 30 April 2014 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
REUTERS HEALTH: Glow, a reproductive health service, was announced Monday as the Webby Award winner for best health and fitness mobile application.
The free app, available for iOS and Android operating systems, aims to help women take full control over their reproductive health and calculate when they are most fertile. Users begin by indicating whether or not they are trying to conceive, before adding personal health information, including weight, height, activity level, average menstrual cycle and body temperature.
“Glow is an ambitious enterprise where for the first time ever, our emerging ability to crunch and analyse vast quantities of data will be used to empower women (and couples) to take control of their reproductive health,” according to glowing.com. Paypal co-founder Max Levchin and former Google executive Mike Huang launched Glow in 2013.
“We’re beyond thrilled, to be a young startup and to win in this new category,” said Jennifer Tye, Glow’s Head of Marketing. During its first six months, Tye said Glow helped more than 10,000 women across the globe to become pregnant. This marks the first year health and fitness apps were given their own category.
The four other nominees: Win the Hour from Nike; Charity Miles, an effort helping athletes raise funds for charity; Touchfit: GSP from Zolmo; and Walgreens, the official customer service app allowing users to chat with pharmacists and refill prescriptions.
Charity Miles was announced as the People’s Voice Award winner for best health and fitness mobile app. A ceremony will be held 20 May at Cipriani Wall Street, and it will be hosted by actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. It will be streamed at webbyawards.com.
In addition, 11 other apps ranging from personal wellness journals to allergen and symptom trackers received honourable mentions.
WebMD, available for iOS and Android mobile operating systems, provides a symptom checker allowing users to indicate pain or symptom levels to learn about potential conditions or issues. “We are thrilled,” said David Ziegler, Director of Mobile Product Management. “In addition to improving the look and feel of the entire app and our popular symptom checker utility, we wanted to offer users the ability to read about healthy living-related content on a daily basis.”
‘My Wellness Journal’ is a personal health record app created by California-based Project Tiki. For $ 2.99, the app allows users to store their own and their family’s medical information through an iPhone or iPad.
“It allows you to take all your information with you and store it easily and safely, even email it,” said John Hobson, Founder and C.E.O. “App stores are tough, but we saw a need that would be valuable to consumers, and went after it.”
The American Red Cross was honoured for ‘First Aid’, a multi-platform app integrated with EMS. It provides safety tips for emergencies, including severe winter weather, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Other diagrams and videos are designed to teach users basic first aid, including treatments for burns, choking and heat stroke.
“Everybody has the need to know what to do in case an emergency happens, and they need accurately information,” said Dom Tolli, Vice President of Product Management with the American Red Cross. Tolli said First Aid has been downloaded more than 2 million times.
Zyrtec’s Allergycast with a symptom tracker boasts it is “the first pollen app that learns what you’re allergic to, teaches you exactly why you’re sneezing and lets you log your symptoms to unlock prizes and charms”. With the app, for both iOS and Android, users may log symptoms, such as an itchy nose or throat, and learn about Zyrtec products.
Diabetes HealthMate from GlaxoSmithKline helps users track their blood sugar readings over time, and chart how they relate to factors such as mood, activity level and diet.
My Pregnancy Today from BabyCenter is designed to help expectant parents learn about their baby’s development.
“There is a lot of promise for health and fitness apps, and I think we are really just at the beginning of what we will see and how important some of these experiences will become in our daily lives,” David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of the awards, said in a statement.
Established in 1996, the Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, an organisation made up of more than 1,000 technology experts and artists.
