Voxiva, the purveyor of interactive mobile health coaching programs, is looking to fill two positions in its downtown DC location: a VP of product marketing and a client engagement manager. The new hires coincide with the launch of a new product called Connect4health, an "umbrella" program that managed care organizations and state and local health providers can offer their patients and clients that will provide SMS-based advice and support for all stages of life.
"Text messaging is such an efficient way to reach people," explains Emilia Guasconi, Voxiva’s marketing manager. "Eighty-five percent of people text, and 98 percent can receive text messages."
Voxiva’s most popular program is Text4baby, a free national public health program that gives pregnant women and mothers of children up to age one information about different stages of pregnancy and infant development.
Text4baby is three years old, and, according to Guasconi, has garnered 500,000 users. And the texts from Text4baby don’t count against text message plans on mobile devices, Guasconi adds.
Voxiva says women who use Text4baby miss 30 percent fewer doctors' appointments.
The maternal health program is just one of Voxiva’s offerings, but it is currently the only one offered directly to end users. The company has also created Text2quit, a smoking cessation program, and Care4life, a program for people recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Those two programs are available at the organization level only.
"Text2quit is very interactive," Guasconi says. Smokers choose a date to quit and text that date to the system. Two to four weeks before the date, Text2quit starts sending them support messages. Once the quit date is reached, users can text "crave” and "they get a multiple-choice game to play with the system, to get their minds off of the craving and to keep their hands busy.”"
Voxiva works with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the George Washington School of Public Health, among others. The company is working with the American Diabetes Association to develop a mobile website for Care4life.
Allyson Jacob is a writer originally hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, and is the Innovation and Job News editor for
Elevation DC. Her work has been featured in
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