Merck & Co. and Healthy Interactions alliance’s Map4health, a new digital and mobile service catering to diabetes patients, is designed for connecting patients with doctors to educate and help them between clinic visits.

Map4health enables Type 2 diabetes patients to clear their doubts and ask queries regarding their condition through text messaging and video chats with healthcare professionals. An additional feature of setting targets and tracking activity of the user is also incorporated in the platform. 

Merck’s spokesman described in an email that the new platform functions jointly with current self-management education and support (DSMES) programs, and their own Journey for Control. This new step, an extension of its collaboration with Healthy interactions, is a part of Merck’s progressive work in diabetes.

“The growing problem of diabetes is one of our top therapeutic priorities,” he said, adding that Map4health “is an evolution of the companies’ 11-year collaboration aimed to better equip health educators to deliver improved patient support and education for patients living with diabetes.”

The promotion of Map4health will be carried out via physicians, as per Merck and Healthy Interactions.

Healthy Interactions Founder and CEO Paul Lasiuk wrote in an email, “We believe that the optimal patient identification and patient activation is achieved through healthcare professionals. Patients trust their HCP. Our model both leverages and enhances the relationship and trust between a patient and their HCP.”