New smartphone app for patients with hemophilia and related bleeding disorders

Oct 23 2013

BioRx, a national specialty pharmacy and infusion services provider, announced the launch of its industry's first smartphone app designed for patients with hemophilia and related bleeding disorders. The app, called MyFactor, was developed and tested extensively by members of the hemophilia patient community. It was created to give patients and caregivers one place to easily monitor and manage their home treatment.

The first version of the app, to be released on the Apple Store next month, allows patients to electronically record bleeding episodes and treatments, and facilitates easy sharing of information with their healthcare team, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses and care coordinators. Further planned releases of the app, due in 2014, will allow customers to access their BioRx pharmacy records and track delivery of medications to their home.

"MyFactor is the first hemophilia app from a specialty pharmacy," said Eric Hill, co-founder of BioRx. "This creates a unique platform for BioRx customers and staff to more efficiently communicate, exchange detailed treatment information, and helps both parties to anticipate and plan for future needs."

Today, the vast majority of people with bleeding disorders receive homecare pharmacy and infusion services to help manage their day-to-day care. In moderate to severe cases, patients typically self-infuse and receive monthly shipments of their clotting factor medication and infusion supplies. Physician visits may not be frequent, but interaction with the pharmacy is routine. Keeping track of hemophilia bleeding episodes and treatments (as often as 3 or 4 times per week) can become a burden to patients and caregivers, especially over time; however, communicating these events is important to monitoring for potential joint damage from repeat bleeds, determining the need for dose adjustments, and diagnosing other issues that may impact health outcomes.

Bleeding disorder patients and caregivers can use a "wizard" style graphical interface on MyFactor to log details of treatments and bleeding episodes - including type, cause, location, and levels of pain and severity. A unique feature of the app gives users the option to scan the barcode of almost any brand of clotting factor in order to record its lot number. Maintaining a record of lot numbers is particularly important in the case of product recalls.

MyFactor can also generate historical reports in PDF and CSV formats at the touch of a button - customized by date range, keyword or event type. Reports from the app can easily be shared with others by selecting email addresses from the iPhone contact list, while access to the app can be password-protected on the device itself. Additionally, patients can use MyFactor to set up regular infusion reminders and alerts, add detailed notes, switch between multiple user accounts, and attach photos to show active bleeds, range of motion, or other information that may be useful to the healthcare team.

"This first release of MyFactor is an exciting step for us," said Randy Broyles, R.Ph., National Director of Operations for BioRx. "Helping patients manage their disease on a hand-held device makes a difficult part of their lives that much more convenient. We look forward to taking it to the next level and beyond."

The MyFactor app has been submitted for release to the Apple Store and should be available for download as soon as November. It was designed for the iPhone operating system but can also be downloaded to iPads. BioRx plans to release a version for Android devices in the next few months.