US insurer launches medication tracker for Apple Watch
US health insurer Humana has launched a scaled down, Apple watch-enabled version of its Humana Pharmacy app allowing users to be notified when to refill prescriptions and track their orders. A third feature, a reminder to take the medication, will be introduced later in the year. The company launched several digital health apps last year, including Humana Cue that promotes healthy habits, and HumanaVitality, in addition to partnerships and pilots for coaching programmes, preventing childhood obesity, and public health initiatives.
Humana has launched an Apple Watch-enabled version of its existing mail order pharmacy app, called the Humana Pharmacy App.

The iPhone version of the Humana Pharmacy app allows users to refill prescription by scanning a barcode, take a picture of the pill bottle to switch to Humana pharmacy or watch a video about the medication, update communication preferences, and manage prescriptions.

Currently, the Apple Watch version only offers two features. Users can receive refill reminders that notify them when it’s time to reorder and track their order so they know when their prescription will arrive. But later this year, Humana plans to add a third feature that will remind users to take the medication.

“Our new Apple Watch app makes managing medications and adhering to medication therapy easier than ever before,” Humana Pharmacy Solutions President William Fleming said in a statement. “For people managing multiple daily medications, these tools can make a real difference in helping our members optimize their drug therapy and achieve their best health.”

Last year, Humana launched another Apple Watch-enabled app, called Cue. That app encourages users to do small things to build healthy habits, like drink water, focus on breathing, focus on posture, get up and move, go outside for some fresh air, and stretch.

“Cue leverages the latest technology to simplify getting healthy,” Bruce Broussard, President and CEO of Humana, said a the time. “The app demonstrates Humana’s dedication to people’s health and shows how we’re applying our experience and knowledge of consumers to benefit their well-being.”

Humana has launched a number of digital health initaitives in the last year.

Last year, the company announced a new lab dedicated to making sure HumanaVitality and other apps from the insurance giant have the same nimble development protocols as apps developed at a small startup would.

Then in July 2015, Welkin Health, a San Francisco-based population health management company that provides a combination of mobile, web, and telephone-based coaching programs, announced its first major pilot, which was with Humana's Innovation Group.

A few months later, Humana partnered with Kurbo Health, which offers a mobile-enabled program aimed at preventing childhood obesity, to offer its employer customers the option to add a 12-month subscription of Kurbo Health as a wellness benefit for their employees.

This year, Humana announced it was joining Propeller Health's Air Louisville public-private partnership. The project, launched in March 2015 in collaboration with the City of Louisville and funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, aims to connect sensors to 2,000 asthma inhalers and share that data, in aggregate, with city officials so it can be used to improve public health.