Medivo acquires mobile health startup WellApps

The creator of GI Monitor will give Medivo a foothold in the mobile health space

As a fairly neurotic hypochondriac, I would like nothing better than to have a direct line to my doctor just to give her minute-by-minute updates on my imagined symptoms.  Questions like, "Does this look normal to you?" "Is this a rash or skin parasites?" and "What's the correct firmness of poop I should be aiming for?" just can't be googled.

One company, WellApps Inc, has developed a product that creates that direct line to the doctor--but for people with legitimate chronic illnesses...not imagined ones.  And its innovative apps have caught the eye of Medivo, a company that streamlines the lab testing process.  Medivo announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire WellApps.  

The two companies are not disclosing the terms of the deal, but Medivo says that the acquisition will grant it quick access to the mobile health space.

WellApps currently offers two mobile health apps: GI Monitor and Colonoscopy Prep Assistant.  The idea for GI Monitor came from CEO and co-founder Brett Shamosh.  A long-time Ulcerative Colitis patient, Shamosh suffered a particularly bad flare-up in 2009, at which point he developed an app to track his symptoms, diet, and medications, and thereby provide his doctor with more comprehensive information.
GI Monitor allows patients suffering with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn's Disease, or Ulcerative Colitis to track their symtoms, pain levels, stress levels, and meals to both provide more accurate information to their doctors and to track correlations between flare-ups and environmental or nutritional patterns.

The app also lets users chat with other patients in real-time.

While Medivo was not immediately available to comment, the company did specify in its announcement that GI Monitor will be fully integrated into the Medivo Monitor platform for patients and the Medivo PatientPath for physicians.

"In addition, this acquisition will increase our ability to address a broader set of medical conditions, which will have a positive impact on our patients and physicians," said CEO Sundeep Bhan, in a statement.

Medivo recently raised $7 million in a Series A round of funding led by Safeguard Scientifics.

WellApps CEO Brett Shamosh will be joining Medivo as VP of Product Development, but no word on whether the rest of the WellApps staff--which includes co-founders Edward Shin and Paolo Teodorani--will be joining Medivo.  Shamosh has previously worked on digital content and applications for media companies such as Oxygen, the NHL, CSTV, and Tango Media.

GI Monitor and Colonoscopy Prep Assistant are free to download via iPhone, Android, or the Web.

Image source: wellapps.com