“A top challenge that research patients face is access to reliable, convenient, and pre-paid transportation to get to and from the clinic for regular study visits,” said Jeff Lee, president of mProve, which was acquired by Bracket in October 2017.
Last week, the transportation service company Uber introduced Uber Health.
“The new Uber Health dashboard allows healthcare professionals the ability to order rides for patients going to and from the care they need, but there are barriers to using this product in clinical research,” Lee told us. “That’s where Bracket comes in.”
Bracket will provide research participants access to request rides from its patient engagement app as an Uber Health API partner. Uber Health API, which was also launched last week, enables Uber Health integration into existing healthcare products
Lee explained the integration will allow pharmaceutical sponsors to manage payments so patients don’t have to upfront costs and it can allow sponsors to restrict rides to study site locations to reduce risk.
“As the only direct point of contact to research patients, the responsibility falls on the research sites to commit a lot of time and money to helping them get around,” Lee said.
“The Uber dashboard, which allows site coordinators to order rides for patients who need transportation to help complete a study visit, will helpfully ease that burden.”
In developing the new healthcare offering, Uber worked with the HIPAA compliance company Clearwater Compliance to conduct risk and compliance assessments.
More than 100 healthcare organizations in the US are currently using Uber Health as a part of a beta program.