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KENILWORTH, N.J. — Healthy Interactions, a global leader in health education, in collaboration with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced the launch of map4health – a digital platform and mobile application in the U.S. that was designed to help facilitate and enhance communications between diabetes patients and educators. This technology was developed as an extension of the Journey for Control collaboration between Healthy Interactions and Merck, and will make its debut today at the 2018 American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) Annual Conference in Baltimore.
Map4health is designed as a platform to help improve the quality of diabetes patient support in between in-person coaching sessions by enabling patients to connect with educators through text and video-chat, as well as providing weekly digital activities to sustain patient engagement. Patients may choose to securely log health information that their educators are able to review and respond to within the platform.
“Healthy Interactions has collaborated with Merck for over 10 years on Journey for Control to encourage patients living with diabetes to become more engaged stewards of their health,” said Paul Lasiuk, co-founder and chief executive officer, Healthy Interactions. “Today, we are proud to introduce map4health, and believe this tool will further enhance the positive impact that diabetes educators are making in the lives of their patients.”
In 2007, Healthy Interactions and Merck, also in collaboration with the American Diabetes Association (ADA), launched Journey for Control – a patient-centric education initiative targeting diabetes educators and utilizing the U.S. Diabetes Conversation Map – to collaborate on developing tools focused on lifestyle and behavioral change to help healthcare providers improve diabetes management for people living with the disease.
“The American Diabetes Association supports technology-based methods, along with individual and group settings, for the delivery of effective diabetes self-management education and support,” according to Matt Petersen, vice president at the American Diabetes Association. “The ADA has been extremely satisfied with the ability to connect providers and patients that has been enabled through our collaboration with Healthy Interactions and Merck.”
“We are thrilled our work with Healthy Interactions will provide diabetes patients and educators a digital platform for dialogue and personalized self-management tools,” added Lisa French, associate vice president, strategy and commercial model innovation, Merck.
