This week’s Smart Health roundup features the first mass study of the LGBT community’s health using an app, a pregnancy app that raised $5 million in funding and an app that educates teens on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The Pride Study

Mitchell Lunn, MD and Juno Obedin-Maliver, MD of San Francisco are the co-directors of an ambitious study regarding the health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The study, called Pride, will utilize an iPhone app and a web service to gather information regarding physical, mental and social issues that may be affecting the health of the LGBT community.

The Pride app was created using Apple’s ResearchKit, which is a platform for medical research apps. The team expects that many will sign up for the study, and they hope to follow the volunteers for decades to determine the correlation between their health and factors that are affecting them related to their sexual orientation.

The study could help explore the risk of breast cancer in transgender men in testosterone therapy, something that is not currently a top concern of Dr. Obedin-Maliver’s patients.

For iPhone users who are interested in joining the study, the Pride app can be downloaded here. For non-iPhone users, a web-based interface will soon be available, and you can register here to be notified as soon as the site is up. You can also download photos for your Facebook and Twitter accounts to show that you are either a participant or supporter of the study.

Wildflower Health raises $5m funding

Wildflower Health, Inc., a healthcare technology company, has raised $5 million in a round of funding led by new investors Easton Capital and Hatteras Venture Partners. Existing investors Cambia Health Solutions and HealthTechCapital also participated in this round.

Wildflower Health offers an app called Due Date Plus, which allows users to track pregnancy milestones, get personalized health advice, set custom reminders, obtain information on more than 50 risk factors for pregnancy complications, access in-app tools and trackers and a 24/7 call center staffed by nurses, and be able to reach the nearest public health resources.

The round of funding will be used to expand its operations, which includes new programs that help families manage their healthcare and connect them to the healthcare system in a more efficient and smarter way. The funding will also be used to expand its mobile platform, with plans to release a Spanish version of the Due Date Plus app in the next few months.

“Wildflower’s maternity and family health solutions enable our client brands to shine in the mobile environment, highlighting the unique services and products that they offer and helping them establish richer relationships with their members,” said Leah Sparks, CEO of Wildflower Health. “This investment, along with the outstanding leadership that Easton and Hatteras bring to our family of investors, will help spur our next wave of growth.”

It Matters

According to the  Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the number of teens that have contracted sexually transmitted diseases have significantly increased over the years. The agency has identified a 38 percent increase in gonorrhea infections and a 7.2 percent increase in chlamydia among adolescents ages 15–19. And one in eight teenage girls was diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea in 2010. Because of this alarming finding, Access Matters, a group that advocates proper access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health, will launch an app called It Matters by fall 2015.

The app is aimed at teens to give them proper access to information regarding sexual and reproductive health. The app will allow users to ask experts questions anonymously, as well as locate the nearest clinics for their needs. What makes the app unique is that it will also cater to teens from the LGBT community, as it will address sexual health concerns that are unique to them.

Currently, Access Matters has health resource centers in 13 Philadelphia high schools that provide condoms, education, confidential counseling and medical referrals to combat the widespread transmission of STDs among teens.

Image source: The Pride Study