by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | July 25, 2013
From the July 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
How it works
The basic function of the app is as a sort of safety alert system, as Freifeld explains. When you sign up for it, you list what vaccines, drugs or devices you’re interested in. The app then aggregates news articles or safety alerts around those products. If you, as a clinician or patient, have an issue, you then file a report using the app, describing what happened and with what device or medication, which Epidemico then relays to the FDA. But the company creates its own feedback loop. De-identified reports submitted to the app will be then sent to other users who have signaled they want to follow alerts around those products, so the community of users can help keep each other aware of potential problems.
For now, though, that community is in its infancy. Freifeld says they have around 2,000 registered users, mostly consumers and not providers, and so far only 100 or so reports have been submitted to them. “We haven’t done a lot of publicity because we’re still ramping up and improving it and testing it,” Freifeld says.
But it’s possible, with the FDA backing it, the app could take off. As one real-life user apparently told the company after reporting an event: “I wanted to be heard.”
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