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Smartphones can tell when you're drunk by analyzing your walk -- ScienceDaily

"In 5 years, I would like to imagine a world in which if people go out with friends and drink at risky levels," Suffoletto says, "they get an alert at the first sign of impairment and are sent strategies to help them stop drinking and protect them from high-risk events like driving, interpersonal violence and unprotected sexual encounters."

Social connection boosts fitness app appeal -- ScienceDaily

This study shows that the social components of physical activity apps are particularly beneficial in promoting engagement in physical activity due to their capacity to facilitate social support, and positively influence motivation and beliefs in one's ability to perform physical activity.

App could help diagnose ear infections more accurately (developing countries)

The funnel is placed on the outside of the ear, at which point the app sends a bird chirp-like sound into the ear. Depending on the sounds that the app picks up in return, a machine learning algorithm built into the app is able to tell whether or not there is liquid in the ear. “It’s like tapping on a wine glass,” Chan said. “Depending on whether it’s empty or not, it’s going to sound different.”

Sunsetting Sip: A Post Mortem | Product Hunt

Sip was a single player experience and lacked an engagement loop that would encourage users to invite other users. This point is even more important today as consumers face fatigue and makers face increasing competition as the cost to build continues to drop. Distribution should be considered on day one and built into the product.

Sunsetting Sip: A Post Mortem | Product Hunt

From the beginning, we knew how hard it would be to get someone to download yet another app, let alone open it every day. We knew we could dramatically increase adoption by expanding Sip to the web, reducing the barrier to entry and making these stories more shareable.

The DAILY (Daily Automated Intensive Log for Youth) Trial: A Wireless, Portable System to Improve Adherence and Glycemic Control in Youth with Diabetes | Request PDF

Blood glucose (BG) monitoring (BGM) is an important component of diabetes management. New wireless technologies may facilitate BGM and help to optimize glycemic control. We evaluated an integrated wireless approach with and without a motivational game in youth with diabetes. Forty youth, 8-18 years old, each received a handheld device fitted with a wireless modem and diabetes data management software, plus a wireless-enabled BG monitor. Half were randomized to receive the new technologies along with an integrated motivational game in which the participants would guess a BG level following collection of three earlier readings (Game Group). BG data, insulin doses, and carbohydrate intake were displayed graphically prior to the glucose estimation. The other group received the new technologies alone (Control Group). Both groups were instructed to perform BGM four times daily and transmit their data to a central server via the wireless modem. Feasibility of implementation and outcomes were ascertained after 4 weeks. Ninety-three percent of participants successfully transmitted their data wirelessly to the server. The Game Group transmitted significantly more glucose values than the Control Group (P < 0.001). The Game Group also had significantly less hyperglycemia (glucose >/=13.9 mmol/L or >/=250 mg/dL) than the Control Group (P < 0.001). Youth in the Game Group displayed a significant increase in diabetes knowledge over the 4-week trial (P < 0.005). Finally, there was a trend for more youth in the Game Group to maintain hemoglobin A1C values </=8% (P = 0.06). Thus a pediatric population with diabetes can successfully implement new technologies to facilitate BGM. Use of a motivational game appears to increase the frequency of monitoring, reduce the frequency of hyperglycemia, and improve diabetes knowledge, and may help to optimize glycemic control.

Apple isn't a monopolist

And developers, from first-time engineers to larger companies, can rest assured that everyone is playing by the same set of rules. That’s how it should be. We want more app businesses to thrive — including the ones that compete with some aspect of our business, because they drive us to be better.

Fertility app 'Dot' found to be as effective as other family planning methods -- ScienceDaily

The researchers found that the app had a typical-use failure rate of 5 percent and a perfect-use failure rate of 1 percent, which makes Dot comparable to family planning methods such as the pill, vaginal ring, and other fertility awareness-based methods. "More and more women are using apps as a family planning method, so having an option backed by strong evidence of effectiveness is critical," says Victoria Jennings, PhD, principal investigator of the Dot effectiveness study and director of the IRH. "Women must be able to base their app choice on solid evidence about how well the method works and what's involved in using it. That's why it was so important that an app like Dot undergo a rigorous effectiveness trial conducted according to established study guidelines used to study other methods."

Infectious diseases could be diagnosed with smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa -- ScienceDaily

Still, the report's authors remain optimistic. As of 2016, global smartphone adoption has reached 51 per cent and is predicted to keep growing -- particularly in resource limited settings such as sub-Saharan Africa. This means more and more of the world's population is equipped with a powerful pocket computer that can connect patients and share healthcare data. Professor Stevens said: "This is an exciting opportunity for researchers and policy makers to develop new tools and systems that could drastically improve human health and wellbeing in the future."

THC found more important for therapeutic effects in cannabis than originally thought: Researchers measure product characteristics and associated effects with mobile app -- ScienceDaily

Since its release in 2016, the commercially developed ReleafApp has been the only publicly available, incentive-free app for educating patients on how their type of product (e.g., flower or concentrate), combustion method, cannabis subspecies (indica, sativa, and hybrid), and major cannabinoid contents (THC and CBD) affect their symptom severity levels, essentially providing invaluable user feedback on their health status, medication choices, and the clinical outcomes of those choices as measured by symptom relief and side effects. The study aimed to address the practical questions of knowing how fundamental characteristics of currently available and frequently used cannabis products, characteristics that often influence consumer choices, affect health symptom intensity levels. The average patient, across the roughly 20,000 measured user sessions and 27 measured symptom categories ranging from depression to seizure activity, showed an immediate symptom improvement of 3.5 points on a 0-10 scale. Dried flower was the most commonly used product and generally associated with greater symptom improvement than other types of products.

Is the most effective weight-loss strategy really that hard? New study shows dietary self-monitoring takes less than 15 minutes a day -- ScienceDaily

What was most predictive of weight-loss success was not the time spent monitoring -- those who took more time and included more detail did not have better outcomes -- but the frequency of log-ins, confirming the conclusions of earlier studies. "Those who self-monitored three or more time per day, and were consistent day after day, were the most successful," Harvey said. "It seems to be the act of self-monitoring itself that makes the difference -- not the time spent or the details included."

A new sort of health app can do the job of drugs – The Economist – Medium

Most apps are developed by startups, many of which are based in and around Boston. One such, Pear Therapeutics, has a pipeline of treatments at various stages of development, much like a conventional pharmaceutical firm. These apps are aimed at treating a range of conditions: opioid addiction, schizophrenia, anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and chronic pain. Pear’s reSET app, for instance, which treats disorders involving the misuse of alcohol, cocaine and other stimulants, has been approved for sale and should be on the market in early 2018. The app will be more effective than conventional treatments, claims Corey McCann, Pear’s chief executive. It carefully trains patients to recognise daily triggers and cravings and to monitor and track these with their doctor.

App, brief intervention may be lifesaver for suicidal teens -- ScienceDaily

The app, called BRITE, prompts them daily to rate their mood and offers personalized recovery strategies when they're distressed. For instance, one patient may be encouraged to play an enjoyable video game or sift through family photos that were uploaded to the app. Another may watch a meditation video, or -- if all else fails -- access the suicide emergency numbers programmed into BRITE.

Joyable for Anxiety

This San Francisco startup, which bills itself as the leading online solution for overcoming social anxiety, wants to help those who are time-strapped. The Joyable app offers brief, five-to-ten minute activities for users, ranging from checking in with your feelings at any given moment and examining 'personal values.' Individual plans cost $99 per month, and typically involve eight-to-twelve weeks of guided therapy, including check-ins with a regular coach. The activities are modeled after a psychotherapy method called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, a heavily researched and widely-respected field. Joyable, which launched in 2013, has raised more than $15 million in funding and claims to have reached more than 500,000 users.

Mobile Health App Effective for Serious Mental Illness

The FOCUS system includes daily self-assessment prompts and on-demand functions that can be accessed anytime. Self-management content targets five broad domains: voices, which involves coping with auditory hallucinations via cognitive restructuring, distraction, and guided hypothesis testing; mood, which involves managing depression and anxiety with behavioral activation, relaxation techniques, and supportive content; sleep, which involves sleep hygiene, relaxation, and health and wellness psychoeducation; social functioning, which involves cognitive restructuring of persecutory ideation, anger management, activity scheduling, and skills training; and medication, which involves behavioral tailoring and receiving reminders.

Fitness apps found to make almost no difference to users' health | Australia news | The Guardian

“The evidence for many apps is low but I still believe apps have potential to change health-related behaviours and help people with chronic conditions,” Byambasuren said. “But evidence is a must. And the truth is it’s just really hard to change human behaviour and health-related behaviours. No matter how many apps you download, they only work if you change your behaviour.”

| Brigham Young University

The findings for diet and fitness app users were as expected: more than 90 percent of users reported an increase in their desire and motivation to eat healthy and be physically active.

Feasibility of PRIME: A Cognitive Neuroscience-Informed Mobile App Intervention to Enhance Motivated Behavior and Improve Quality of Life in Recent Onset Schizophrenia

The UCD process resulted in the following feature set: (1) delivery of text message (short message service, SMS)-based motivational coaching from trained therapists, (2) individualized goal setting in prognostically important psychosocial domains, (3) social networking via direct peer-to-peer messaging, and (4) community “moments feed” to capture and reinforce rewarding experiences and goal achievements. Users preferred an experience that highlighted several of the principles of self-determination theory, including the desire for more control of their future (autonomy and competence) and an approach that helps them improve existing relationships (relatedness). IDEO, also recommended an approach that was casual, friendly, and nonstigmatizing, which is in line with the recovery model of psychosis. After 12-weeks of using PRIME, participants used the app, on average, every other day, were actively engaged with its various features each time they logged in and retention and satisfaction was high (20/20, 100% retention, high satisfaction ratings). The iterative design process lead to a 2- to 3-fold increase in engagement from Stage 1 to Stage 2 in almost each aspect of the platform.

New apps designed to reduce depression, anxiety as easily as checking your phone: Speedy mini-apps are designed to address depression and anxiety -- ScienceDaily

The 96 participants who completed the research study reported that they experienced about a 50 percent decrease in the severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. The short-term study-related reductions are comparable to results expected in clinical practice using psychotherapy or with that seen using antidepressant medication.

Arivale launches data-based wellness coaching program in California | MobiHealthNews

“Our target spans three categories,” said Lewis. “Health Optimizers, like someone who wants to live a long time and do all kinds of exciting things; Health Hopefuls, who have recently had or known someone who had a health scare and wants to change their ways; and Health Demoralized, who have a number of unhealthy behaviors and want to change almost everything, but they don’t have a chronic illness – yet.” Arivale, which was cofounded in 2014, has been offering its product since last year to users in Washington. In May 2015, the company raised $36 million in funding. Over the past year, they had 1,200 people try out the beta version, and expects a swift customer following in the new market. “We chose California because we’ve had so much interest,” Lewis said. “We’ve received a lot of requests from people who want science-based feedback and coaching on how to maximize their wellness.”   At $3,500 for a one-year subscription to the service, and $1,000 following that, Alivare isn’t cheap, and it’s not a quick undertaking. It takes a few months to fully analyze and put the data to actionable use, and early testing took up to six months. Customers join, go through the concierge service of the app to make goals, get blood tests, wait for the results, then start figuring out a plan with their dietician/coach.

Facebook's director of product design says you'll spend most of your life in 7 apps

You're going to spend a high percentage of time in seven applications — which seven is different for every person. Globally, Facebook is going to have a very high likelihood of being one of those seven, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and others.

The Psychology Of Notifications | TechCrunch

Good triggers prompt action while vague or irrelevant messages annoy users. It’s important that a trigger cue a specific, simple behavior. For instance, notifications from WhatsApp make it easy for users to check the latest update on a thread and respond accordingly. Their notifications are simple and focused and instruct the user what to do next.

The website is dead, long live the platform

If in five years I’m just watching NFL-endorsed ESPN clips through a syndication deal with a messaging app, and Vice is just an age-skewed Viacom with better audience data, and I’m looking up the same trivia on Genius instead of Wikipedia, and “publications” are just content agencies that solve temporary optimization issues for much larger platforms, what will have been point of the last twenty years of creating things for the web?

WNYC's sleep competition yields results

WNYC’s earlier sleep project in the city that never sleeps. In spring, Clock Your Sleep involved 5,200 listeners in a project that involved good reporting and then invited people to join teams, led by WNYC hosts, to “compete” for better sleep, tracking their results. The quick data: More than 40 percent of respondents said they noticed a change in their sleep since they started tracking it. 19.4 percent reported getting more sleep. 77 percent of respondents reported learning something while participating in the project.
2 percent of all app developers pull in over 50 percent of all app revenue—"The revenue distribution is so heavily skewed towards the top that just 1.6% of developers make multiples of the other 98.4% combined." A staggering 47% of app developers either make literally no money, or less than $100 per month, per app.
Among Tinder’s most intoxicating assets is the illusion it creates of a never-ending supply of eligible dates. Sorting dates has become my go-to tool for cell-phone procrastination and entertaining myself while in line at Duane Reade. Before dating apps, I used those moments to browse Twitter, text my mom, and learn languages on DuoLingo. Now I just rate men.