We knew that patients really loved the utility of the GI Monitor app, and now we find out that physicians also are very pleased with how well the symptom-tracking feature works for their patients.
Dr. Roshini Raj, a board certified gastroenterologist and internist and the medical editor at Health magazine, identified Medivo’s GI Monitor as one of the most effective health apps during a segment on NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday, Aug. 21.
Dr. Raj, a graduate of New York University School of Medicine, was talking about a few of the apps and websites that she believes are trustworthy and provide a high quality experience for both the patient and the physician. After her segment on “Today,” GI Monitor quickly shot up the charts in the iTunes app store to a No. 3 ranking among free health apps.
“There is a lot of information out there, some of it good and some of it not so good,” Dr. Raj said of the plethora of digital resources for patients. Among the apps she identified as most useful for patients were GI Monitor, the leading symptom-tracking app for IBD, Crohn’s and Colitis.
“Technology is the wave of the future in health care,” Dr. Raj explained, “and [GI Monitor] is a way that patients can actually monitor their symptoms and keep track of their symptoms.” These accurate reports of symptoms can then be shared by the patient with his /her physician at the next office visit.
“One of the things that I get frustrated with as a doctor,” she said, “is that when the patient comes in and when I ask them how long they have had this problem, they can’t remember…. But this is a way that you can actually create a chart for your doctor and bring it in and show them.”
As Dr. Raj noted on the “Today Show,” Medivo also is developing apps similar to GI Monitor for patients with lupus and arthritis. Stay tuned for important product updates from Medivo.
Six hundred and twenty-one competitors. What a great turnout for Team Challenge at the Napa2Sonoma Half Marathon in mid-July!
And what a great day for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), the beneficiary of Team Challenge’s fund-raising efforts. Team Challenge, an endurance training and fundraising program for the CCFA, raised more than $2.4 million in Napa to support CCFA programs. (Team Challenge members represented about 20 percent of the 3,000-runner field.)
Medivo’s GI Monitor is proud to be a sponsor of the Team Challenge National Chapter during the 2012 summer season, which kicked off in Hawaii in June. The CCFA National Team sports the “GI Monitor by Medivo” logo on their race-day singlets and National Team shirts.
In Napa, Brett Segall, representing the New England Chapter of Team Challenge, raised $33,386 and ranked as the day’s top fund-raiser. It was also a good day for the National Chapter of Team Challenge, which included a contingent of 50 strong representing Abbott Laboratories and who raised $182,496.
In addition, nine of the nation’s top GI doctors (leaders in the IBD field) raised $81,523 in the half-marathon event, which began under a light fog that kept the temperatures pleasantly cool throughout the race.
Many of the competitors were participating under the Team Challenge training program, which is designed to help interested competitors train to run or walk 13.1 miles, or to train for triathlons and cycling events. The overall goal is to continue raising awareness while helping to support the effort to find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
After the first two races on Team Challenge’s schedule this summer, the core group National team members has raised a grand total of $129,806 between the Kona and Napa races. In aggregate for the summer season Team Challenge had more than 1,200 participants who raised more than $4.8 million.
Team Challenge participants came away from the experience with great memories, as well as the personal satisfaction that comes with a tackling a difficult challenge. Here are just a few of the comments posted on the GI Monitor socialization thread:
Lisa B. of Cortlandt, N.Y., said: “Had a fantastic time running my first team challenge half marathon in wine country!”
James H. of Louisville, Ky., (see photo below, bottom row, right side): “I ran the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon for Team Challenge. It is with great pride to share with you that I was the top fundraiser for the National Team, raising over $7,000. Now for the fun part: with perfect weather conditions, training hard and beautiful scenery, I set a new personal record for my fastest half marathon with a time of 1:49:42. I was the first finisher on the National Team and finished the race with pride, emotion and a smile on my face.”
Next Half Marathon in Las Vegas
Team Challenge information meetings have begun taking place around the country. More information can be found at the website http://www.ccteamchallenge.org/hmtp.htm. There is still time to join a team and begin training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon (along The Strip under the stars) with Team Challenge/Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America as the title charity.
It’s been a great couple of weeks for Team Challenge and GI Monitor’s family of running enthusiasts. Team Challenge, you may recall, is a group of runners who raise funds for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) by competing in Half Marathons and other athletic events.
In late June, Team Challenge’s national running chapter – competing for the first time with new singlets featuring the GI Monitor sponsorship emblem – took on the 13.1 miles of the Kona Half Marathon on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here’s a recap of the race:
The top fundraiser in Kona was Amy Payonk, who represented the Philadelphia- area Team Challenge chapter. She raised $12,116 for CCFA and completed her first-ever half marathon just five months after spending time in a hospital isolation ward with a dangerously low neutrophil count.
Wow, that’s something to cheer about for Amy.
Also deserving a high five is Kimberly Fairhurst of Reston, Va., who was the fastest woman from Team Challenge with a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes, 46 seconds in Kona. Congrats to you, Kimberly.
In aggregate, the National Team group of Team Challenge will have raised approximately $100,000 from two races this summer, in Kona and Napa Valley in California in mid-July. In Napa, Team Challenge expected to send about 650 of its runners to the starting line (out of a field of 3,000). We will have results from the Napa race to post here soon.
“It’s going to be huge,” Team Challenge member Dewey Thom said of the Napa event. He planned to work with TC alumni handing out water at mile 10.2 during the race. “TC has participated in this race since 2008 and this is the largest field presented yet. Exciting!” he added. (Thom, affectionately known to the GI Monitor family as “the father of buttbook,” was instrumental in setting up the “GI Monitor by Medivo” sponsorship for Team Challenge and helped secure the photos accompanying this post.)
Team Challenge is CCFA’s endurance training and fundraising program, and helps interested athletes train to run in distance running events, triathlons and even cycling events. The goal is to raise funds to support the effort to find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic and often debilitating digestive diseases that impact 1.4 million Americans.
Sunday, June 24, is going to be a big day for Dewey Thom and his CCFA Team Challenge running mates on the Big Island, Hawaii. This is the day Team Challenge competes in the Kona Half Marathon to raise funds for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA).
It’s also a memorable day for Medivo’s GI Monitor, which has signed on as a Team Challenge sponsor for the 2012 season. The Kona 13.1-mile race is the kickoff of this new sponsorship. Dewey and the CCFA National Team have a “GI Monitor by Medivo” logo on their race-day singlet and on their National Team shirts.
For the Kona race, Thom will be playing an important mentoring role for new Team Challenge participants (he’s sidelined by an Achilles injury that may or may not be related to his IBD treatment, he says). The new Team Challenge runners are either fellow sufferers, those who have loved ones affected by IBD or just people “who are simply interested in completing a half marathon while helping the CCFA in its mission,” Thom says.
Thom, 49, completed his first half marathon for Team Challenge in July 2008 in Napa, California, and he’s taken part in seven events as a Team Challenge member.
Team Challenge is CCFA’s endurance training and fundraising program, and helps interested athletes train to run in distance running events, triathlons and even cycling events. The goal is to raise funds to support the effort to find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic and often debilitating digestive diseases that impact 1.4 million Americans.
Providing balance in social media
Thom says he became aware of GI Monitor from an advertisement for apps and then downloaded it to his mobile phone. Awhile later in September 2011, he began using the app to track his symptoms before ultimately finding the socialization feature of the app – a feature that has now become part of his daily routine. The GI Monitor app also makes it much easier to track symptoms and prepare for doctor visits, he says.
He also finds great utility in the social aspect of GI Monitor, which he says has established a worldwide user community with new members joining, especially newly diagnosed and those sufferers battling flares or recovering from surgery.
“In terms of medical communities, the online support group is virtually 24-7,” he says. “There are people from the U.K., Australia, and the West Coast [among other places] who you can follow around the clock.”
He adds, “If you are having trouble, you can get on the app and say this is happening, and get a response.”
Thom says he comments “on a lot of discussion threads,” mainly because he wants to provide balance and insight to these discussion among patients. One of his goals is to provide support for the newly diagnosed and to help them “self-educate” by directing them to new resources.
“What I will tend to do is when someone says, ‘My doctor mentioned Remicade,’ I try to provide a balanced and calming view. The nature of IBD is that it’s highly idiosyncratic,” he notes. “What may not work for you, may work for another person.”
Thom was diagnosed with IBD about 30 years ago, and has lived more than two-thirds of his life battling the symptoms (and without his colon). He says his condition has improved over the past year (no hospital visits this year) after he added a new med to supplement the advanced biologic he takes weekly since that “alone was not doing the trick.”
We at Medivo are excited to join the GI Monitor community and welcome you to our family. We’re impressed with how much Brett Shamosh and his co-founders created in a short time and are thrilled about Brett’s continued involvement. We are committed to keeping the app free and making enhancements that help you manage and improve your health.
In addition to future enhancements to the GI Monitor experience, you can also look forward to being introduced to additional free services for managing your health including tools to help you get ongoing lab tests when needed.
Please share any feedback or comments you have about how we can improve your GI Monitor experience. Send your comments to monitor @medivo.com.
We look forward to getting to know the community better and earning your trust.
Warmest regards,
The Medivo Co-founders
Sundeep Bhan, CEO
Jason Bhan, MD, EVP
Destry Sulkes, MD, EVP
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recently released figures that indicate the number of people in North America and the Caribbean with living with diabetes is expected to increase by more than a third by the year 2030*. This increased patient load on physicians and testing centers may lead to increased wait times and all around additional hassles for folks with conditions such as Diabetes who are subject to frequent lab testing.
Medivo manages patient support programs designed to assist diabetics in navigating the lab testing process, interpreting lab results, and improving overall understanding about their condition. To learn more about how our services can help you, click here. If you have any thoughts or comments on your own lab testing experiences or on these recent predictions from IDF, we invite you to submit those as comments to this post. Your feedback is important to us!
*IDF Press Release “One adult in ten has diabetes in North America”, 11/14/11
