Researchers in the Sinai App Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have announced RxUniverse, touting it as the “first enterprise-wide digital medicine care delivery system.” Featuring a curated list of apps that have been evaluated for efficacy based on published evidence, the system enables physicians to digitally prescribe mobile health apps to patients at the point of care.
“RxUniverse allows physicians and other healthcare providers to seamlessly and confidently integrate evidence-based digital health tools into their practice,” Ashish Atreja, MD, MPH, Chief Technology Innovation and Engagement Officer and Director of the Sinai AppLab, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a statement. “Apps have typically been recommended to patients verbally, but with the myriad of mobile health apps on the market, many with no proven evidence, it is a challenge for providers and patients. RxUniverse eliminates these uncertainties and barriers to digital medicine.”
RxUniverse was originally launched in August 2016 in a pilot phase throughout five clinical areas at Mount Sinai, and since then, participating physicians have prescribed more than 2,000 apps, exceeding 20 times the pilot goal. As a result, the Sinai AppLab has partnered with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners to launch a new startup company, Responsive Health, which will license RxUniverse for use by other health systems.
Beyond mHealth apps, RxUniverse can also feature specifically tailored educational content, patient satisfaction surveys, and other tools that can be digitally prescribed to individual patients, or entire populations of people.
“As the pace of innovation in digital medicine accelerates, there will be increasing demand for the ability to quickly integrate new apps into our health care systems,” Kenneth L Davis, MD, President and CEO, Mount Sinai Health System, said in a statement. “Mount Sinai is proud to be at the forefront of digital medicine and dedicated to streamlining the eHealth care delivery model to further our mission to provide world-class care to our patients.”