Tonic Wins “Best Mobile Health Solution for Behavior Change”

May 25, 2011 - PRLog -- Tonic received an award for “Best Mobile Health Solution for Behavior Change”, in the “Already in market” category, at the Mobile Health 2011: What Really Works conference, organized by BJ Fogg, Director of  Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab. Tonic was selected from over 50 nominees.

Tonic is an iPhone app to help people remember and keep track of everything in their health regimens, to empower them to take better care of themselves. Tonic is the first and only app that supports the full range of people’s self care efforts. It is easily customized to each person’s unique situation (from one or many chronic diseases to temporary illnesses and wellness efforts) and health practices (the latest Western medication regimens or the most ancient healing practices or any combination). Tonic provides this flexibility in a simple, elegant design.

“Tonic is a great example of the Persuasive Technology Lab’s recommendations for products to support behavior change, especially ‘Help people do what they already want to do’ and ‘Put hot triggers in the path of motivated people’,” said BJ Fogg. “My Behavior Model shows that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability and Trigger. Tonic is supporting what people already want to do, so they’re already Motivated; it makes it easier for them to do it, increasing their Ability; and the reminders provide the necessary Trigger.”

One of the award co-organizers, Geoffrey Clapp, said that Tonic stood out “both because of its unique and novel approach to a difficult problem, and because we heard loudly from users that this innovation was making a real difference in their lives.” People with a wide range of health situations, from serious chronic conditions (cancer, cystic fibrosis, parkinson's disease) to "wellness" regimens, have found it very helpful.

“It’s fantastic for Tonic to receive this recognition, as Tonic is at the forefront of innovations that empower and support individuals,” said Rajiv Mehta, co-developer of Tonic. “Many patient-directed health solutions assume that people need to be told what to do and need to be incentivized to do so. Instead, we take a more positive approach, believing that many people are already doing quite a lot for their health, but need help to do better.” Rajiv Mehta’s talk at the conference described the commonplace complexities of self care and how Tonic helps.

Aleksey Novicov, co-developer of Tonic, added “It's gratifying to be recognized for developing an app that places value on understanding needs, as well as the importance of design. We developed Tonic from the perspective of the end-user: if we are to make a difference in the healthcare industry, we have to start with people first. From this vision we developed Tonic with one eye on functionality, and another eye on simplicity and usability. Even though we have many future enhancements planned for Tonic, we will continue to keep it simple to use.”

Tonic is available for $4.99 at the App Store, and works with iPhone and iPod touch with iOS 4.0 or later.

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Tonic is jointly developed by Bhageera Inc and Yodel Code LLC. Bhageera Inc, led by Rajiv Mehta, is a consultancy that helps companies evaluate and commercialize radical innovation, with a focus on consumer health innovations. Yodel Code LLC, led by Aleksey Novicov, develops mobile apps and provides iOS consulting.

Media contact: Rajiv Mehta, rajiv@bhageera.com, 440/941-6251

Links:
Tonic — http://www.tonicselfcare.com/
Mobile Health 2011: What Really Works — http://mobilehealth.org/
“Taming Complexity: Making self care easier”, Rajiv Mehta’s presentation at the conference — bit.ly/Tonic-MH11
Bhageera Consulting — http://www.bhageera.com
YodelCode LLC — http://www.yodelcode.com