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Digital Savant: Austin developers believe apps can change behavior and fitness
[June 26, 2013]

Digital Savant: Austin developers believe apps can change behavior and fitness


Jun 26, 2013 (Austin American-Statesman - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- It started with a book published last year, "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by New York Times writer Charles Duhigg.



After reading it, Jason Bornhorst, a mobile product developer who'd worked on the travel app "FlightTrack," became obsessed with the ways in which we can improve ourselves by recognizing how and why our habits develop.

"I was struck with how perfect mobile is as a medium for engineering habit changes and new customer lifestyle changes," Bornhorst said. "That's kind of what started me down this path." That path was partnering with Colin Anawaty, a designer and consultant who also had mobile app experience, to start a company called Filament Labs. With help from a few contractors and freelance writers, the two created "HabitSpark," launched in May on Apple's App Store. Though there are complex ideas about behavior, motivation and rewards behind the app, it's meant to be as simple as possible: Users are encouraged to pair a habit they already have with a baby step toward a healthier habit "so small the user cannot fail," as Bornhorst describes it. Watching TV every night at 7 p.m. or turning off the alarm clock in the morning, for instance, could prompt the app to remind you to put on running shoes or perform two push-ups.


Since its launch, the name of the app was changed to "HealthSpark" to better reflect the larger ambitions of Anawaty and Bornhorst. They see the app as one piece of a platform they're building to guide people to take first steps toward being healthier and happier.

"Our goal is not necessarily this app, but we've learned so much from people using it for a few weeks," Anawaty said.

Anawaty and Bornhorst say they've been talking to Central Texas hospitals about partnerships for "HealthSpark," but the company got a big break when its app caught the attention of health care giant Aetna Inc. Aetna was in the process of putting together a portal to recommend apps on a new wellness website, CarePass, when it met with Filament Labs at South by Southwest Interactive in March. "HealthSpark" is now one of about 30 apps featured on CarePass, which launched a week ago. Though CarePass is open to all, Aetna members have the option of sharing some of their health data with these apps and tracking it on CarePass to better monitor their activity, nutrition, sleep patterns and more.

CarePass seems to be harnessing several trends in tech: the popularity of mobile fitness apps, the ubiquity of smartphones and the availability of sensor-based technology like the Nike FuelBand and Fitbit, wearable activity trackers that also work with CarePass.

Martha Wofford, vice president and head of consumer platform at Aetna, said the goal for CarePass is to help people pull fitness and health information from a variety of sources and collect it in one place. But, more importantly, she hopes it will prompt healthier behavior.

"We're really focused on how we make this visually compelling for individuals and how we give them incentives to stick with it because we know it's hard to get started," Wofford said.

Wofford said that with tens of thousands of health-related apps out there, CarePass is narrowing them down and spotlighting the best for customers who want more tools to improve and manage their health. "Many of these apps make that easier," she said. "We feel it's incumbent on us to bring as broad an array of tools as possible." Another app featured on CarePass is from Austin's MapMyFitness, which offers activity-tracking tools such as "MapMyRun." The "MapMyFitness" app is growing at a rate of about 30,000 to 40,000 new users a day. By the end of June, it expects to have about 17 million users, said Kevin Callahan, co-founder and vice president, innovation strategy.

Like Filament Labs, MapMyFitness is focused on trying to encourage healthier behaviors and long-term fitness habits among its users without the inevitable New Year's resolution effect of diminishing returns and February blues. Callahan says that over seven years, the company has learned a lot about using a mix of incentives like cash or travel prizes, regular notifications, fun goals and competitive contests like an annual Tour de France-inspired contest called the Le Tour Challenge, to keep customers happy.

"For me, personally, I go through an ebb and flow," Callahan said. "I go between goal-based routines, but then I get bored with that and want to do incentive-based challenges." Callahan says that not all users want the same thing, so offering a variety of approaches has been key to the company's success.

"Your goal may be to be active. Or your goal may be to lose weight or just to be happy. People want to be more active and they want control over their own destiny. If you're happy and feel rewarded doing something, that's where you start developing these habits," Callahan said.

Both MapMyFitness and Filament Labs are benefiting from evolving technologies like GPS, cheaper wireless sensors and ever-improving phones and fitness devices making it easier to track what people are doing and to translate that into data that can be viewed or shared. A big part of what makes CarePass different from other health portals is that it's allowing users to combine data from different sources and even mash it up with existing health data from a health provider.

While not everyone will want what Callahan describes as the "fire hose" of big data about themselves, he believes that healthy habits can be formed when information is presented in a useful way. "We're giving people the story of their life. How can we present the data in a way where it's easily understandable?" Callahan asked. Sharing data is also a motivator, Callahan said. Having a group of friends to compare runs with socially or being held accountable in the court of Facebook opinion can be more motivating than going it alone, he said.

For Filament Labs, Anawaty said, the data collected by an app like "HealthSpark" could direct someone to graduate to a real-world program like Weight Watchers or spur them to use a fitness coach, which some health plans offer as part of health coverage. But first, it's important to start small.

"Most people tend to set expectations too high. Then, as they age, they have these feelings of failure all the time. We're trying to change that mindset to get people to think positively," Anawaty said.

"Showing millions of people how to take the first step ... if you make it really easy, that's a powerful way of making change," Bornhorst added.

___ Omar L. Gallaga: [email protected] Read more technology news on Omar L. Gallaga's blog at austin360.com/digitalsavant.

___ (c)2013 Austin American-Statesman, Texas Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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