Analytics platform and digital companion for patients accelerates growth plans for app
MyHealthPal, a digital companion app that enables people with long term health conditions to take control and manage their condition, has received a notable endorsement from a number of seasoned and high profile investors, completing its initial funding of £500,000. It has also announced the start of a trial with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, which is ranked as one of the best hospitals in the US.
The smartphone app and analytics platform for managing multiple conditions, which had a focus on Parkinson’s disease in its first iterations, is free to use for patients. MyHealthPal was created after its founder Mike Barlow was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in his early forties. Barlow, a technologist, quickly discovered there was no effective way to manage his medication and measure its effectiveness, track symptoms, log mood, diet, exercise and other input from daily life. There was also no means of exploring how such data points interact with, and are affected by, medication and impact on quality of life.
As an analytics platform, MyHealthPal aggregates patients’ day to day data points into a usable format for visual interpretation, such as a dashboard. Data donated by users, such as medication adherence and general health information, is de-identified and sold to scientific research institutions and organisations. MyHealthPal uses HIPAA certified technology and meets both EU and US data privacy requirements.
Andrew MacKay, lead investor, commented: “We are very excited to be part of the MyHealthPal journey as the med-tech space is fertile ground for innovation and massive growth. With an ageing population, an increasing penetration of smartphones, and over 421 million people living with long term chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, irritable bowel sisease, HIV/AIDS and alzheimer’s according to the WHO, we see MyHealthPal making sense to users for two main reasons. Firstly, it enables them to take control of their conditions by monitoring their data and managing their lives better. Secondly, they can help others by donating their data so that researchers can find new treatments and potentially cures.”
The app has found support from a mix of private and institutional investors. The founding and lead investors Andrew MacKay, chairman of Yapp Brothers and previously director of IG Group Holdings, and angel investor Will Armitage, are joined by health and medical business expert Terence Bradley and the venture capital creatives Proxy Ventures, which is also supporting MyHealthPal’s branding.
Mary Keane-Dawson, Group CEO, MyHealthPal, said: “MyHealthPal provides an effective way to manage medication. It also allows patients to log and track various aspects of daily life, such as mood, diet, exercise, and sleep, as well as measuring patients’ tremor and/or stiffness. The aggregation of all this data provides insights for both patients and doctors. And, with our unique dataDonate programme which de-identifies all data, users can decide how much, if any, of their data they wish to share to provide support and information to charities and research.
“Ultimately, MyHealthPal analytics platform will enable research and data scientists to query large volumes of data, which is why MyHealthPal is such an interesting business for both investors and medical research institutions,” added Keane-Dawson. “In addition to the recently launched trial with Mount Sinai Hospital, MyHealthPal in advanced discussions with a number of high profile institutions and charities both in the UK and US. We expect this to pave the way for our next round of funding in preparation for raising series A.”
MyHealthPal is available for download on iTunes and in the App Store.
