U.S. Preventive Medicine® Launches First-of-Its-Kind Health & Fitness App in Collaboration with Qualcomm Life

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. and DALLAS, Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc., the leader in preventive medicine, today announced during the 3rd annual mHealth Summit the launch of "Macaw™" from The Prevention Plan™, its new mobile health and fitness app designed to serve as a complete personal health monitor. Macaw is a full-feature app that assesses an individual's health risks and will serve as a hub to track health metrics and activity, as well as integrate information from other health and fitness apps, plus lab results and wireless devices. 

For members of U.S. Preventive Medicine's The Prevention Plan, Macaw has additional features including showing the individual's personal Prevention Score(SM) and integrating data between the mobile app and the Plan's online health management platform. Macaw can be downloaded for free on the iPhone and Android devices. It is enabled by Qualcomm Life Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and was designed by Fjord, a leading design consultancy.

"U.S. Preventive Medicine's mission is to make the world a healthier place and help save lives by giving people the tools, advice and encouragement they need to identify their top health risks and improve their health," said Christopher Fey, founder, CEO and chairman of U.S. Preventive Medicine. "The new revolutionary Macaw app is an important tool that is designed to be the ultimate mobile health hub, enabling users to improve their individual health outcomes while potentially lowering healthcare costs."

According to Rick Valencia, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life, "U.S. Preventive Medicine offers an outstanding clinically-based program – The Prevention Plan - that helps users manage their individual health risks and lead healthier lives. By combining this clinically-based platform with Qualcomm Life's wireless expertise, we have transformed the smartphone into a personal health monitor."

Macaw's Unique Features and Benefits
Unlike other available health and fitness apps, Macaw is based on the clinical science of preventive medicine and is universally designed for people who exercise regularly as well as those who are novices when it comes to physical activity. By leveraging Qualcomm Life's expertise, Macaw will be able to transform a smartphone into the ultimate personal health hub, connecting an individual's health apps and wireless devices for tracking weight, fitness, overall activity and biometrics – including pedometers, glucose meters, activity armbands, scales, labs, sleep managers, mobile weight loss apps and blood pressure cuffs – into a single app for complete tracking. With the initial launch, Macaw will allow integration with the Fitlinxx Actiped+ all-day activity monitor, and WorkSmart Labs' weight loss and fitness app Noom Weight Loss. Macaw users will be able to track the progress of their activity, nutrition and health knowledge while engaging in games that unlock prizes. 

Features include:

• 7 questions to quickly assess your health
• GPS to track exercise
• Ability to set goals and track weight and calories
• Reminders about recommended preventive screenings based on age and gender
• Activity and knowledge cards that unlock chances for weekly prizes

Additional features for members of The Prevention Plan include:

• A link to the Prevention Score, a unique tool that tracks an individual's prevention efforts and key health indicators throughout the year
• Activity auto-uploaded to The Prevention Plan
• Exercise, weight and calories tracked

According to world championship-winning quarterback and U.S. Preventive Medicine spokesperson, Joe Theismann, "We all need to take better care of our health by staying active and living a healthy lifestyle.  With the Macaw mobile app, you can have greater confidence that you are doing all you can to proactively manage your health, maintain healthy habits, identify your top health risks and work to reduce them. It puts all the tools you need for better health right in your pocket."

Industry experts in mobile health and technology, including those from The New York Times, WIRED, BNET, PhoneDog and Mashable, named Macaw among the top three finalists in both the fitness and the health and wellness categories of the 2011 "Hot for the Holidays Awards" national competition sponsored by CTIA, the cellular telecommunications industry association. Finalists were selected based on innovation, functionality and creativity.

Macaw is available for download on the iPhone App Store and Android Market. You can also stay up-to-date by following Macaw on Facebook (Facebook.com/ThePreventionPlan), Twitter (@MacawApp) and YouTube (YouTube.com/MacawApp). View the video at www.youtube.com/macawapp.

About U.S. Preventive Medicine®
U.S. Preventive Medicine (http://www.USPreventiveMedicine.com) is leading a global preventive health movement focused on saving lives and money by keeping people healthy and better managing chronic conditions before they progress. Innovative products - The Prevention Plan™ web-based health management platform, and Macaw mobile health & fitness app - are based on the clinical science of preventive medicine: primary (wellness and health promotion to keep healthy people healthy), secondary (screening for earlier detection/diagnosis) and tertiary (early evidence-based treatment to reduce complications and disability). The company is accredited in wellness and health promotion by NCQA (the National Committee for Quality Assurance) and disease management by URAC.  More information can be found on Facebook (Facebook.com/pages/US-Preventive-Medicine), Twitter (@USPM) and YouTube (YouTube.com/thepreventionchannel).

About The Prevention Plan
The Prevention Plan is a personalized, step-by-step health management program designed to help people take control of their health. Through a full health risk appraisal and comprehensive blood test panel, The Plan identifies an individual's top health risks and designs a customized plan of action to reduce those risks. The Member is supported by health coaching, robust online tools, plan-wide challenges with rewards, and a dynamic Prevention Score℠ to help them stay motivated and on track to improving their health. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Population Health Management, "The Impact of The Prevention Plan on Employee Health Risk Reduction," (October 2010) demonstrated that The Prevention Plan is effective in achieving measurable improvements in key health risk factors after just one year on the plan. Recent findings show that after two years on The Prevention Plan, members significantly reduced health risks in 14 of 15 key risk areas.

About Qualcomm Life
Qualcomm Life is defining and connecting the wireless health network to improve lives and advance the capabilities of medical devices. Qualcomm Life is focused on device connectivity and data management and empowers medical device manufacturers to deliver wireless health quickly and easily to those who need it. The Qualcomm Life team has the experience and the wireless know-how to make the enormous complexities of a wireless connection look simple. We draw from our parent company's more than 25 years of wireless connectivity experience, know-how and universal interoperability to enable unified machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. To learn more, please visit www.qualcommlife.com.

About Joe Theismann
A former professional athlete, Mr. Theismann was elected NFL Man of the Year in 1982 for his community service and dedication to the health and welfare of children. Staying true to this commitment, Mr. Theismann participates as a member on the Sports Advisory Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Mr. Theismann also has a personal connection to preventive health. His father avoided life-threatening complications when a doctor detected a previously unknown abdominal aortic aneurysm during a routine exam. Mr. Theismann works with Find the AAAnswers campaign, a multi-faceted public education program about the medical condition.  In addition to his work with U.S. Preventive Medicine, Mr. Theismann holds close ties to the NFL with a career spanning 37 years as a player, analyst and commentator. Currently, Mr. Theismann is co-host of the NFL Network show Playbook. He also oversees a popular Washington, D.C. restaurant that bears his name.

About Fjord       
Fjord is a leading design consultancy and works with visionary clients to create transformational digital services that are driven by one guiding principle: elegant simplicity. Fjord was founded in 2001 and is led by Olof Schybergson (CEO). The Fjord team has a deep understanding of the context of mobility and working across multi-platforms. Fjord has worked on flagship projects providing strategic direction and design for major brands including: BBC, Citibank, Ericsson, Foursquare, Nokia and Yahoo! Fjord has offices in Berlin, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Stockholm, New York and San Francisco. For more information visit Fjord's website, conversations blog or Twitter page.

SOURCE U.S. Preventive Medicine

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