PHILADELPHIA—Penn Medicine received the Enterprise Award for Digital Innovation, given to an organization that applies new or existing technology in an innovative way to solve a problem or advance goals, from Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) for the creation of Penn Life Gained, a first-of-its-kind mobile app for bariatric surgery patients.
These patients are often asked to track steps and exercise, record caloric and water intake, monitor sleep time, and alter diet, in addition to managing their clinic appointments and evaluations while on the road to bariatric surgery, which can be overwhelming. Penn Life Gained, built using Apple CareKit, a software framework designed to help people actively manage their own medical conditions, will help collate all of the patients’ health information for them, in once place.
Patients in the Bariatric Surgery Program who have an iPhone will be able to download the app via the App Store, and log in using a unique code that they receive from the clinical team. Once fully enrolled, patients can sync information from any other app that they use, such as fitness trackers or food logs along with Apple Health App, so all of their health information will be organized in Penn Life Gained. As a partner-app to Penn Life Gained, Penn Medicine and Medable, an app and analytics platform for healthcare, created a second clinician-facing app, which allows the care team to monitor the patients’ health data in real-time, by syncing the two applications. Penn Life Gained can easily monitor the patient’s pre- and post-surgery progress, help personalize clinic visits based on data collected from the app, assign “to-do’s” and manage personalized care plans, as well as spot areas of concern very quickly in order to help the care team intervene and prevent adverse events and hospital readmissions. Penn Life Gained officially launched in December 2017, more information about the app and its functionality is available online at Penn Medicine News.
PACT, affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, connects emerging growth companies, venture investors, professional advisors, and technology-focused corporations to pursue business opportunities and market and promote their businesses to foster growth and innovation. The Enterprise Award for Digital Innovation, and other awards in the program, will be presented at PACT’s Enterprise Awards event on May 9, 2018 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $580 million awarded in the 2023 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts,” Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries that have shaped modern medicine, including CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System cares for patients in facilities and their homes stretching from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. UPHS facilities include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Doylestown Health, Lancaster General Health, Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, chartered in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Penn Medicine at Home, GSPP Rehabilitation, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.9 billion enterprise powered by nearly 49,000 talented faculty and staff.