There’s a new way for Hoosiers to track their health and participate in research at the same time — a mobile app.
The LIFE Extend App and its partnership with All IN for Health provides a free health tracker, scientific-based articles and a way to connect with friends. Its creators say they hope it will help address Indiana’s poor public health rankings.
Don Brown is CEO of LifeOmic, the software company that developed the app. He says this is a win-win for Hoosiers.
"That they would have fun using, that they would have fun sharing with friends and family,” Brown says. “But a bi-product is that we collect lots of information about patients and they can elect to share that information with the research community.”
The app lets participants track physical activity, nutrition, sleep and mindfulness.
Peter Embi, scientific leader of All IN for Health, says getting a diverse group of users will help Indiana University, Purdue University and University of Notre Dame researchers.
“If we don’t do studies that represent the people of our state, then the results from the studies we do are not going to be as applicable,” Embi says.
They hope to have 100,000 Hoosiers participate.