gamification

By  Brian Dolan 06:11 am January 23, 2014
Earlier this month the Federal Trade Commission published a notice that granted UnitedHealth Group a preliminary green light to acquire Audax Health Solutions. These notices are granted both for outright acquisitions and for larger investments that include a large stake in the company. Since neither UnitedHealth Group nor Audax Health has commented yet, it's unclear which is in the works, but the...
By  Jonah Comstock 09:40 am November 12, 2013
SuperBetter, a popular health and wellness game. Three trends are driving players in the healthcare space -- especially insurers -- toward gamification, according to a recent report by consulting firm ICF International: the trend toward value-based care, the increasing role of the patient as consumer, and the millennial generation as desirable health insurance customers. A fourth trend, the...
By  Jonah Comstock 09:25 am August 29, 2013
Audax Health Solutions has announced a $20 million funding raise led by Navigy Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Florida Blue Cross Blue Shield. Additional contributors to the round include former Aetna CEO and current Audax board member Jack Rowe and Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships at Facebook. This round is the company's first publicly-announced equity raise, although the company reports it...
By  Jonah Comstock 06:10 am June 28, 2013
New surgeries, tools, and techniques are developed often, and medical device companies say it can be tricky to get surgeons to adopt them sometimes. After all, there are no unimportant patients, and no one wants to be their surgeon's first attempt at a new procedure. Part of Minneapolis-based Medtronic's sales team's job is to encourage surgeons who have tried and true procedures to get trained...
By  Aditi Pai 01:36 pm June 26, 2013
On the sidelines of the Games for Health event in Boston this week, Dr. Mark Sivak, assistant academic specialist at Northeastern University, explained to MobiHealthNews that the conversation around health games has evolved from one focused on novelty to one more concerned with outcomes. "What we're staring to get into now on the research level is that previously people would ask, 'Okay, prove to...
By  Jonah Comstock 02:21 pm April 3, 2013
OneHealth Solutions, a web and mobile platform geared at employee behavior change, announced a $9 million second round of funding from existing investor Lemhi Ventures. The money will go to expanding the service and supporting the added accounts of a number of recently added partners and customers. Since January, the company has inked deals with healthcare company Cenpatico, healthcare management...
By  Jonah Comstock 01:07 pm April 3, 2013
Mango Health, a Rock Health startup focused on using gamification principles to tackle medication adherence, launched its titular app after months of beta testing, a 16-week pilot, and not a small amount of hype. The company has raised $3 million so far. Medication adherence is considered to be a $290 billion dollar per year problem, and it's one that a number of mobile apps and connected devices...
By  Jonah Comstock 01:12 pm February 6, 2013
At the mHealth Summit in December, when Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini announced a March 2013 launch of the mobile version of Aetna's CarePass platform, he also previewed a fitness app called Passage: A Virtual Journey. The free app is available to everyone, not just Aetna members. "Instead of staring at a book while you're on your elliptical or stairclimber, what we have is an opportunity to turn your...
By  Jonah Comstock 10:49 am January 21, 2013
Washington, D.C.-based Audax Health, a health social networking and gamification company, raised $21 million in debt, options, and other security, according to a recent SEC filing first reported by the Washington Business Journal. The company, founded by 23-year-old Grant Verstandig and supported by former Apple CEO John Sculley, is developing the Zensey social network, which is currently in...
By  Neil Versel 04:00 am September 25, 2012
Getting people to embrace motivational gaming for health and fitness may be a struggle, but some new data suggest that the concept works well when used properly. Results of a study presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society in San Antonio, Texas, found that 59 percent of adolescents using Zamzee, an activity meter that resembles a USB drive, had higher levels of physical...